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ROLAND GARROS

June 5, 2017

Simona Halep

Paris, France

S. HALEP/C. Navarro

6-1, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. How good are you feeling after having some question marks before the tournament with your ankle? Now you're playing this well, how satisfied are you with that?
SIMONA HALEP: Well, I feel very, very good now. I think I played the best match here in Roland Garros against Carla, which always was a tough match. And on clay I never won against her, so it was a really good match. I think I played exactly what I had to.

About my ankle, I still feel at some balls pain, but doesn't bother me. So I can run. I'm not thinking about it during the points, so I feel that I'm fit. I'm ready to go into this second week.

I'm happy to be in the quarterfinals again, so let's see. Next opponent, it's a big challenge for me. I will give my best.

Q. You were consistently hitting the ball with lots of depth right into the baseline. Is that an aspect of your play that you're particularly pleased with?
SIMONA HALEP: Oh, yeah, I'm really pleased with the way I played today. I think was complete game.

Also, I played a little bit higher, so I knew it's good against her. Also, I attacked the balls. I didn't stay too far from the court.

So I opened the courts, I served pretty well, so I think everything went pretty well for me today. I'm really pleased with my game.

Q. You tend to be very harsh on yourself on your own performances.
SIMONA HALEP: No more.

Q. How often does it happen that you step out on court and that you just feel the ball and just hit through it the way that you have done today and also at several points in the past few weeks?
SIMONA HALEP: Well, as you know, and everyone knows, I think my attitude helps me to see the game better and to be able to play relaxed and to play more positive.

I think I am more present on court, and I know exactly what I have to do against each player. I just feel the ball now. I don't want to talk too much about this feeling, because I want to keep it. It's a good tournament for me, and it's, like, amazing how I won today, how I played against Carla. It's never easy against her.

Q. The way you have changed your attitude to be more positive, have you done that in other parts of your life, as well? Has it transferred?
SIMONA HALEP: Yeah, I think everything is changed. Also in my general life. I'm more positive, and helps me. I don't have bad moods anymore, so it's good (smiling).

Q. Obviously this has happened quite quickly. Has it been easy for you or difficult to change this so quickly?
SIMONA HALEP: Was difficult. I still want to say that I have more to improve in this way, but now I'm okay with the way I am on court and out of court.

I just work hard. I really wanted to change that. I knew that it's gonna change my game if I'm more, like, calm on court.

Q. You had a brief, I guess, vacation from Darren after Miami and everything happened.
SIMONA HALEP: You call vacation, but it was not a vacation (smiling).

Q. Trying to be polite. How did that help you, and also how much was that responsible for this new positive attitude?
SIMONA HALEP: I think it meant a lot that he took that decision. Helped me. I just felt that it was like a shock, because I lost the coach. So I have just to improve in this way, because he never had something to complain about my game and about the work that I do, because I'm working.

But just with my attitude. I knew that is the only one thing that I have to change to have him back. So I work hard, and I changed. I changed pretty fast. But still I repeat, I have a lot to work on.

Q. Do you think or have you even asked Darren this, did he do it deliberately, stopped to try to get you to change your attitude?
SIMONA HALEP: I didn't ask this. I will ask him. But I don't think, I don't think, no. He was upset after Miami's match.

Q. You're playing with a lot of confidence and freedom right now. How important is it for you to take the same approach and the same attitude into the next game?
SIMONA HALEP: Well, yeah. I feel confident. I feel my game. But every match is tough. Nerves before the match, as well, I will face a very good player which is playing really well this year.

But I need to play again, because I lost that final in Rome with the injury. I was not happy about that. Now I have another chance, another challenge. So it's gonna be a tough one, but I'm ready to play it. I just wish to beat me if it's better not to lose the match. I will do everything I can.

Q. You have to explain this Darren thing again. So you don't see it coming, and he says to you, I don't like your attitude anymore. And then? Then what? Are you trying to keep in touch with him? Are you trying to tell him, I can change? Those weeks he wasn't with you, were you still trying to tell him, I can do this?
SIMONA HALEP: He wasn't with me. He was home. I was home. He just told me that, we will talk after Paris. And then he liked how I was in Fed Cup, both matches. And then in Stuttgart. So I think when I finished Stuttgart, he said he saw enough, and he's ready to come back. I asked him if he wants to come back before Madrid (smiling). He said yes, because I improved a lot, and he saw that I really wanted to change that.

So the desire that I had in that moment made him come back and just be ready for me.

So I'm okay. Now I'm happy that I can be positive on court, and I will never be negative like I was in Miami, because I didn't like when I saw the video, I felt ashamed about what I did. So hopefully is not going to happen again.

Q. Also on Darren...
SIMONA HALEP: So many questions about my coach (smiling).

Q. Apologies.
SIMONA HALEP: No problem.

Q. What do you like the most about him? What maybe don't you like the most about him?
SIMONA HALEP: Ah, well... I like because he's a great person, first of all. He's a very kind person.

Second, I feel that I am a different player since I started with him. Even if I didn't have the biggest results in my career, I play different. I am, like, different player on court with the game. I open the court better.

So I feel I learn something new from him like tactic and like game, as well. My forehand has improved. The serve, as well.

His advices fit me. I can understand everything he says about the game. I think that's why he has also confidence that I can do some things that he's telling me. And I have confidence in everything he says. So I can go and just do whatever he's telling me.

Q. It seems like every player we have seen from Romania kind of has passion, whether negative, positive, something going on in the water over there?
SIMONA HALEP: I don't know. I think the blood.

Q. What makes you all that way?
SIMONA HALEP: The blood. It's inside.

Yeah, but all of us, yeah, all of us, we have something. I can say I have something more (smiling). Because I am like, I'm living every moment very high intensity. On court/off court. I have just to calm down that.

I think also the mentality. We were growing up with this mentality and that's why maybe we are fired up all the time on court.

Q. Taking that a little bit further, what do you think it is in Romania? It's a wonderful country. Southern Europe. What is special in Romania to give that intensity to so many?
SIMONA HALEP: I don't know. I just told you, I think the blood is the answer. We have it. So we don't know. No one told me, like, Be like this. I am just like this because maybe I was born with this thing, with the fire in me and myself.

I'm just trying to take also the things from other people like Darren, because he's Australian and he's more relaxed than us. So I'm trying just to adapt myself and to adjust the things that are putting me down when I'm too negative on court.

Tough questions. (Laughter.)

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