Tennis Player Simona Halep an aggressive baseliner
Simona Halep
Simona Halep (Romanian pronunciation: [siˈmona haˈlep]; born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 2.
Halep first broke into the world's top 50 at the end of 2012, the top
20 in August 2013, and then the top 10 in January 2014 (after reaching
the Australian Open quarterfinal). She won her first 6 WTA titles in the same calendar year in 2013 (a feat that was last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1986 when she won her first 7), being named the WTA's Most Improved Player at its end, as well as being named ESPN Center Court's 2013 Most Improved Player. Halep reached the 2014 French Open final, her first Grand Slam final, where she played against Maria Sharapova, losing in three sets. She also reached the final of the WTA Finals the same year, but lost to Serena Williams.
Contents
- 1 Career
- 1.1 Early years
- 1.2 2008–09: Junior slam title
- 1.3 2010–12: Progress to Top 50
- 1.4 2013: Breakthrough; 6 WTA Titles
- 1.5 2014: Reaching Top 2, first Major final & WTA Finals debut
- 1.6 2015: First WTA Premier Mandatory title, US Open semis
- 2 Endorsements
- 3 Coaches
- 4 Playing style
- 5 Grand Slam tournament finals
- 5.1 Singles: 1 (0–1)
- 6 Career statistics
- 6.1 Grand Slam singles performance timeline
- 6.2 Doubles performance timeline
- 6.3 Mixed
- 7 See also
- 8 References
- 9 External links
Endorsements
Simona Halep's current clothing sponsor is Adidas, having previously had her apparel supplied by Lacoste. She also signed a deal with Vodafone Romania for 3 years.
Coaches
She was coached from an early age by Ioan Stan, a local tennis coach in Constanța. In January 2014, Simona Halep hired Belgian coach Wim Fissette, former coach of Kim Clijsters and Sabine Lisicki. At the end of the year, she chose to split with him and hired Romanian coach Victor Ioniță, with Thomas Högstedt serving as a coaching consultant for the first three tournaments of the year. She is managed by Virginia Ruzici. Her fitness coach is Teo Cercel. In the past, Halep has been coached by Adrian Marcu Andrei Mlendea and Firicel Tomai.Playing style
Simona Halep has self-described her playing style as being "an aggressive baseliner" and "she models her game on Justine Henin".
Henin herself said of Halep, "She has an intelligent game. There is a
little something that reminds me of myself... it is offensive and
aggressive." In 2010, before her breakthrough, New York Times columnist Michael Kimmelman described her as "a scrappy player from Romania, short but with potent ground strokes and a scrambler's talent." By 2014, Louisa Thomas of Grantland
was writing with admiration that "it turns out that [Simona] is
astonishingly fast. She started to think ahead during points [...] she
has uncanny anticipation. She became even faster [...] her strokes
became more simple: compact, beautiful, unreadable. [...] she learned to
disrupt the opposition’s rhythm and disguise her own. At her best, she
does not play in patterns. She hits with surprising power. She covers
the whole court. She hits balls with heavy power without making a sound.
[...] Like Djokovic she has a talent for hitting winners from defensive
positions. She is a defensive aggressor, an aggressive defender. She is
becoming unclassifiable." After Halep finished runner-up in her first Grand Slam final against powerful hitter Maria Sharapova
in Roland Garros in 2014, Eleanor Crooks of The Independent wrote that
Halep "has a lovely fluidity of movement and superb balance that enables
her to comfortably trade with more powerful players"
Michael Beattie of Wimbledon.org also noticed that [Halep] "is free of
the shrieks, tics and fist-pumps of her contemporaries."
In terms of tennis strategy Halep is an aggressive counterpuncher.
Her very fit body and athleticism provide her with very good all-court
movement and she tends to make few errors; she also uses this agility to
reach the ball earlier because of her wide back swings and sliding. At
the same time she likes to control the rally and can hit very effective
cross-court and down-the-line flat shots, generally producing winners.
Grand Slam tournament finals
Singles: 1 (0–1)
Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Runner-up | 2014 | French Open | Clay | Maria Sharapova | 4–6, 7–6(7–5), 4–6 |
Career statistics
Main article: Simona Halep career statistics
- Key
W | F | SF | QF | R# | RR | LQ (Q#) | A | P | Z# | PO | SF-B | F-S | G | NMS | NH |
Won tournament; or reached Final;
Semifinal; Quarter-final; Round 4, 3, 2, 1; competed at a Round Robin
stage; lost in Qualification Round; absent from tournament event; played
in a Davis Cup - / Fed Cup Zonal Group (with its number indication) or
Play-off; won a bronze, silver (F or S) or gold medal at the Olympics; a
downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament (Not a Masters Series); or a
tournament that was Not Held in a given year.
To avoid confusion and double counting,
these charts are updated either at the conclusion of a tournament, or
when the player's participation in the tournament has ended.
Grand Slam singles performance timeline
Tournament | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | SR | W–L | Win % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grand Slam Tournaments | |||||||||
Australian Open | Q1 | 3R | 1R | 1R | QF | QF | 0 / 5 | 10–5 | 66.67% |
French Open | 1R | 2R | 1R | 1R | F | 2R | 0 / 6 | 8–6 | 57.14% |
Wimbledon | Q1 | 2R | 1R | 2R | SF | 1R | 0 / 5 | 7–5 | 58.33% |
US Open | 1R | 2R | 2R | 4R | 3R | SF | 0 / 5 | 7–5 | 58.33% |
Win–Loss | 0–2 | 5–4 | 1–4 | 4–4 | 17–4 | 10–4 | 0 / 21 | 32–21 | 60.38% |
Doubles performance timeline
Tournament | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | SR | W–L | Win % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grand Slam Tournaments | ||||||||
Australian Open | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
French Open | 1R | 2R | 1R | A | A | 0 / 3 | 1–2 | 33.33% |
Wimbledon | 1R | 1R | 1R | A | 1R | 0 / 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
US Open | 2R | 1R | 1R | A | A | 0 / 3 | 1–3 | 25% |
Win–Loss | 1–4 | 1–3 | 0–4 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0 / 14 | 2–13 | 13.33% |
Mixed
Tournament | 2015 | SR | W–L | Win% |
---|---|---|---|---|
Australian Open | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | 0% |
French Open | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | 0% |
Wimbledon | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | 0% |
US Open | QF | 0 / 1 | 2−0 | 100% |
Win–Loss | 2–0 | 0 / 1 | 2−0 | 100% |
See also
- List of Grand Slam Girls' Singles champions
- List of French Open champions
- List of Romanians
External links
- Simona Halep at the Women's Tennis Association
- Simona Halep at the International Tennis Federation
- Simona Halep at the Fed Cup
Awards | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Sara Errani |
WTA Most Improved Player 2013 |
Succeeded by Eugenie Bouchard |
Awards | ||
Preceded by N/A |
ESPN Center Court's Most Improved Player 2013 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
Women's Tennis Association: Top European female singles tennis players as of 14 September 2015
Comments
Post a Comment