Newly crowned French Open champion Simona Halep said she was inspired to win her first Grand Slam title by her manager Virginia Ruzici’s feats 40 years ago at Roland Garros.
Until Saturday, Ruzici’s 1978 Paris triumph over Mima Jausovec was the last time a Romanian, man or woman, had won a Grand Slam, but Halep ended that long wait as she hit back to beat American Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
In doing so, Halep equaled the feat of American seven-time French Open champion Chris Evert who also suffered three Grand Slam final losses before capturing the 1974 French title.
Photo: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY
“It’s a motivation and inspiration,” the 26-year-old Halep, who lifted the junior title 10 years ago, told reporters with Ruzici sitting alongside her.
“Forty years ago she won here. It’s a special moment. The fact that it’s happened here, it’s pretty special,” Halep said. “So yeah, she’s an inspiration.”
Ruzici, who also lost the 1980 final and was the inspiration for Richard Williams to teach his daughters Venus and Serena to play tennis, said her charge’s win was well-deserved.
“There is of course a lot of emotion,” she told reporters. “She was very close last season. She was the favorite for this final, but it was not simple. It was a physical and mental fight.
“Simona gave her heart on the court,” she added.
Halep climbed to the top of the rankings last October and has been there more or less ever since.
The elephant in the room remained her lack of a Grand Slam trophy due to her having twice lost the title match in Paris — to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and Jelena Ostapenko last year — and to Caroline Wozniacki at this year’s Australian Open.
By beating Spain’s former French Open champion, Garbine Muguruza, in the semi-finals, she guaranteed that she extended her stay as the world’s No. 1 player — a position that she has held now for 32 weeks in total.
However, it was the Suzanne Lenglen trophy that she really desired and the tears flowed as she raised it skywards on Saturday after showing huge character to battle back to victory.
“I’m really happy that I won this Grand Slam. Because being No. 1 without a Grand Slam, I always said, is not like everything, not 100 percent,” she said. “It’s my favorite Grand Slam.”
“I always said that if I’m going to win one, I want it to be here,” she told reporters after the match.
Halep said the memory of last year’s defeat by Ostapenko when she led by a set and 3-0 actually helped her on Saturday when she trailed by a set and 2-0 to an inspired Stephens.
“When I started to win games, I said that last year it happened to me, the same thing,” she said. “I was a set and a break up and I lost the match. So I said there is a chance to come back and win it.”
Halep’s French title arrived in the 32nd Grand Slam of her career. Only seven players have taken more attempts to land one.
Her patience finally paid off as she used all her experience to weather the Stephens storm.
“I said that I have to calm down, just to try to open the court, try to put more balls in,” she said. “At one point I felt that she started to feel a little bit tired and to miss more. So I was patient.”
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
UP IN SMOKE: More than half a dozen riders crashed out of the race, with Marquez’s title chances in doubt after driving off the track with flames flickering from his bike Jorge Martin yesterday won a crash-filled Indonesia MotoGP to extend his championship lead, while closest rival Francesco Bagnaia limited the damage by claiming the final podium place. The win leaves the Pramac Racing rider 21 points ahead of his Italian Ducati rival, who finished third behind Spaniard Pedro Acosta in sweltering conditions at the Mandalika International Street Circuit on Lombok island. In front of a crowd of 60,000 in motorbike-mad Indonesia, the 26-year-old put his tumble in Saturday’s sprint behind him, canceling out the gains his title rival Bagnaia made after securing victory in that race. “Thank you Indonesia. I am very happy.
RSS