	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ROLAND GARROS

June 10, 2017

Simona Halep

Paris, France

J. OSTAPENKO/S. Halep

4-6, 6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Congratulations on a great tournament and taking part in a great final here today. What are your thoughts on your tournament as a whole, and also today's final?
SIMONA HALEP: I think it was a good tournament. To play final, it's an amazing thing.

She played really well, all the credit. She was hitting very strong. At some point I was like a spectator on court. She deserved to win.

Yeah, it's tough. It's a tough moment for me, but it's gonna go away, I hope, with the time.

I will keep working, because I really want to repeat what I have done this tournament. We will see what is gonna be.

Q. The disappointment at the moment, is it because of the loss or is it because you think you could have done something else to change that match around? What do you think?
SIMONA HALEP: I don't believe I did something wrong, too wrong today. I think I played okay. I played well.

But I think a little bit of luck in some points, all the lines, all the nets. I don't know. I think everything was by her side today. As I said, she deserved to win. She played really well in the very tough moments for her when I was up set and 3-0.

So I can say I was there, I was close, but again, I lost it. I cannot change anything, so I just have to look forward.

Q. Looking at that match, there were a lot of ebbs-and-flows moments where she hit everything right on the line and didn't miss a ball, and there were a couple of games where she missed a couple of them. Where do you feel she tried to change things up, or was that even working at all, because there were winners coming off of forehand, backhand without any predictability?
SIMONA HALEP: I don't believe she changed anything during the match. I think she had only one game. Sometimes were, like, two meters out, sometimes were in the court and I couldn't touch it.

So I think I said that she's playing like this and I cannot accept a rhythm because -- yeah, I cannot expect a rhythm because she's playing like that and I have to be there for every ball.

I was up, I was close, but she came back and she did it very well.

Q. Even though you know going into that match that you're not going to get any rhythm and there will be times when she hits winner after winner, how difficult is it to stay mentally calm in those situations?
SIMONA HALEP: It is difficult, but I think I did it pretty well today. I stayed there, I was fighting, but I think she was better than me today.

Q. On court you said -- I maybe misunderstood it -- but you said you were sick to your stomach with nerves? How was the last 24 hours for you?
SIMONA HALEP: Tough. I was very close to take the first Grand Slam and also No. 1 in the world. So it was a little bit of like emotional moment, but that's it. I think everyone has it, and it's good.

So I want to have many more if it's possible. That's why I work 20 years and played 20 years to have this moment.

Q. You have never played Jelena before, but does she remind you of some other players you have played? Or somebody says, like, Petra Kvitova is close to her in terms of play style?
SIMONA HALEP: I don't know now. But she's playing, hitting all the balls, is what I know. Yeah, she has one rhythm, and she stays in that place, which is a great thing, I think, to stay there even if you miss few balls in a row, and then you start to have confidence and she doesn't miss anymore.

So are kind of those players and kind of my type of players that we want to feel the rhythm, we want to feel the game. They just go and play.

Q. What's worse, this loss or loss of 2014? I ask you this, because also three years ago you had some opportunities and it was a tough match. So this one because you were the favorite, or what?
SIMONA HALEP: I didn't say that I'm favorite before the match, because you never know with players, young players, and players like this, playing very hard and hitting all the balls.

This one hurts a lot maybe because I am more -- I realize more what is happening. Three years ago was something new, so now I know. Hurts a lot, and I need time just to -- I don't know. To go away (smiling).

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297