PRESSURE and Simona Halep have rarely sat well together but as the French Open hits its midweek point, the Romanian is emerging as the big favourite to take the title.
The third seed looked impressive on her way to a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Daria Kasatkina yesterday, getting her win in before the rain which kept some of her rivals off the court, meaning they will play on back-to-back days.
When Halep reached the final here in 2014, losing to Maria Sharapova, it was her first experience of playing under the pressure of a Grand Slam final. Twelve months later when she returned as one of the favourites, she lost in the second round, admitting the pressure had got to her.
In the intervening years, she has enjoyed some good moments but has struggled most of all to keep her innate negativity at bay, a feeling that when the match got tight, she would not be able to dig herself out of trouble.
It was something that came to a head this spring in Miami when her coach, Darren Cahill, said he could not put up with it any longer.
That was the trigger point for Halep to snap herself out of it, get her mind back on track and the pair reunited soon after, with
Cahill in tow as she won in Madrid and reached the final in Rome.
“The most important thing that he told me after Miami [was] to change the attitude and to be 100 percent there for every ball,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m down or up. I have to stay there. So I did pretty well this week, and hopefully next week I will be better.”
With Serena Williams on maternity leave, Sharapova not granted a wildcard as she works her way back after a 15-month ban for a doping violation and new mother Victoria Azarenka not due to return until later this month, Halep is most people’s tip for the title, on form.
“It is a very nice feeling to be again in the second week,” she said. “I had good matches. Not easy at all. I played well, and the most important thing is that I’m playing better match by match. It gives me confidence for the next week, and also nerves, but better nerves this time.
“I’m not feeling pressure and I’m not feeling that I’m favourite. I just have confidence that I have my chance. I have the game to play until the end. But you never know.”
What might also make her happy is the rain, which began yesterday around 5pm, means that her likely quarter-final opponent, Elena Svitolina, will have to play on two straight days.
First, though, she will take on Carla Suarez Navarro, the Spaniard who beat Russian Elena Vesnina yesterday to reach the last 16 for the fourth time in five years.
Halep has won six of their 11 meetings but the Spaniard has won all four of their clay-court contests, including a first-round battle here in 2013.
Caroline Garcia has had expectation on her shoulders even before Andy Murray suggested, in 2014, that she would be world No 1 one day. The 23-year-old Frenchwoman outlasted Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 4-6, 9-7 to set up a clash with another home player, Alize Cornet, who crushed ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-1.
There is little love lost between the two but Garcia, into the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time, said she was determined to
succeed, on her own terms.
“I came to the French Open with a firm commitment, to not worry too much about the others,” she said. “I want to focus on myself, on my game, and little by little… here we are. But again, it’s great. It’s better than to exit after the first round. It feels great. But it’s a long journey, and it’s not over yet.”
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