For an undersized player, Simona Halep sure uses the words “strong,” “strength” and “power” an awful lot.
“I don’t know where I found the power to win this match.”
“It's like I feel strong when I go on court.”
“I thought that I have enough power to win matches here.”
“To have a great champion in your box, it gives you power.”
Maybe that’s because she’s conscious of what is considered the greatest asset in today’s modern game, and she’s been working hard to add a gear and extra dimension to hers.
But when Halep talks about strength, she’s also talking about mental strength. And that’s definitely one of the Romanian’s strong suits.
Just 5-foot-6 and 132 pounds, Halep is something like a mashup of the two Belgian greats, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin – coincidentally two of the very few players Serena Williams has ever had trouble with. Halep combines the swift, athletic court coverage of Clijsters and the ball-striking and timing of Henin, even if Halep is still working on getting as much surprising power out of her similarly slight frame.
“I'm not very strong,” she admitted. “I don't have big muscles. I'm not tall.” But, she countered, “I have power inside. I fight.”
“Always it's like big challenge for me. Every point is a big challenge. So I do everything I can. I run for every ball, and that one makes me stronger, I think.”
After never having advanced past the fourth round in a major, Halep, 23, last year made a meteroric rise up the rankings to No. 2 and reached the final of the French Open, semifinal at Wimbledon and quarterfinal at the Australian Open.
The Romanian is a thinking person’s tennis player. She’s not someone who just sits back and swats the ball. She is a tactician, capable of playing clinical tennis. Halep also has great wheels, and she can go side-to-side-to-side seemingly forever, forcing opponents to hit three or four “winners” to secure a point. The question mark in her game has been whether Halep can absorb the power of a Petra Kvitova or a Serena Williams.
Henin was uniquely capable of that with her preternatural timing. Halep has been working on becoming more aggressive, hitting harder and seizing opportunities earlier in points.
Of her serve, Halep said, “It's getting bigger, and I'm working a lot on my serve. I feel stronger when I serve, so I'm not afraid anymore to serve.”
That was on splendid display during her quarterfinal victory over Victoria Azarenka, another big ball-striker. After a 90-minute rain delay, Halep came out and immediately smacked a 112-mph ace, her biggest delivery of the day. She punished both her forehand and backhand, pushing the Belarussian deep in the court.
Halep’s precise two-handed backhand in particular is a thing of rare beauty, especially the way she can redirect it deep down the line.
Halep can be fiery, occasionally veering into negative. Perhaps sensing a shift in momentum against Azarenka early in the third set, after just the opening game Halep was already slapping her thigh and slamming her racquet into the court. The rain reprieve – for which Halep said later, “Thanks, God, for raining!” – allowed her to regroup.
The second seed approached the match’s conclusion with a newly positive and aggressive mindset, powering her way to the semifinal.
Halep’s next opponent, Flavia Pennetta, said the Romanian “looks like she's not that powerful like Vika, but she is. She is more powerful, I think.”
“To make a winner to her you have to finish the point seven times. She always there, always in. The ball is always come back.”
