"I have the fire back" claims Simona Halep after flawless start at Madrid Open
WTA
Simona Halep entered the 2022 Madrid Open with a dominant performance over Shuai Zhang and the experienced Romanian was happy about how she played in her opening match.
After the 2021 season, which was full of injuries, Halep was on the verge of retiring. She recently revealed that she wasn't sure if she'd be able to return to her best. However, the former world number one teamed up with Patrick Mouratoglou earlier this month, who previously coached Serena Williams, and they had a successful start together in Madrid.
On Thursday, the 30-year-old Romanian defeated Shuai Zhang of China 6-2, 6-3 in just 58 minutes of play. In the next round, she will face home-crowd favorite Paula Badosa, who reached the semifinals as a wild card last year but is seeded second in 2022.
After her successful start into the clay-court WTA 1000 tournament in the Spanish capital, the two-time major champion spoke about the influence that her new coach Mouratoglou has on her, both on her tennis and her mentality.
"I used to be a little bit more negative in the past, I improved, but now it's like, wow, even more. I can open up to him super easy, I can actually say everything I feel which is helping me because he knows how to take it and how to respond to my problems or my doubts."
"And he has helped me a lot with my doubts because before meeting him I had a lot of doubts that I cannot play at a high level again and probably I was thinking about stopping at one point. But now I'm starting to get it back, I have the fire back, and I love to be on court."
On top of that, returning to winning ways was important to Halep, who is a two-time champion in Madrid. The Romanian wants to repeat that success, but she know it won't be easy to find her top form.
"I'm really happy that I could win this match. It means a lot. Being in Madrid, I have great memories. So everything went together today and I played a good match. Every time when you start with someone, it's tough because you are nervous, you don't know how it's going to be."
"But I was pretty confident that everything will be okay because I have a great relation with [Mouratoglou]. I'm honored, because I always thought that he's great. Now I have the confirmation that he's great, and he's helping me a lot with all the things that I have to improve and I have to do on court."
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