Simona Halep and the Creative Game

Paul Fein

Simona Halep is often compared to former champions Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis, and indeed, certain similarities are unmistakable. Yet Halep is a unique stylist. And that’s why the 22-year-old Romanian from the historic city of Constanta poses such a formidable challenge to modern power players who have won 56 of the 58 Grand Slam events this century.

During the past 12 months only Halep has captured titles on all three surfaces — clay, grass and hard courts. And only the incomparable Serena Williams has won more titles than Halep, eight to seven. Ranked a nondescript No. 57 going into the 2013 French Open, she now stands No. 3 after nearly upsetting Maria Sharapova this year in a thrilling final. Five-time major winner Sharapova called it “the toughest Grand Slam final I’ve ever played.”

What makes Halep’s game beguiling and seemingly more than the sum of its parts? Let’s find out.

Topnotch Technique

A timeless criterion of a sound stroke is its ability to generate power and handle power, and Halep’s picture-perfect backhand does both superbly. “Her backhand is easy, smooth, and has a great shoulder turn,” says Tennis Channel analyst Rennae Stubbs. The shoulder turn is more pronounced because of her traditional semi-closed stance which also ensures she hits “through the ball” on a line to produce consistently solid shots.

Her beautiful rhythmical movement helps synchronize her moving parts from the split second she plants her rear foot to the end of her follow-through. In fact, Halep has more rhythm on all her shots than any other woman in the game. Unlike most women today, she creates significant topspin, a big plus on all surfaces, especially clay. And like Novak Djokovic, who owns the best backhand in men’s tennis, she confidently executes down-the-line backhands with power and precision. Her only backhand flaw is tactical: she doesn't slice it enough — particularly when she's pulled way out of position. She should also slice more to disrupt the timing of opponents.

Although Halep can attack equally well with her improved forehand, this stroke errs more often defensively because she fails to shorten her backswing and over-hits the shot. She should study how Rafael Nadal uses his forehand to extricate himself from difficult positions. After Sharapova extracted forehand errors from Halep in her 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 Roland Garros triumph, Halep acknowledged, “I have to work more at my forehand because I made a few important mistakes in important moments.”

The Halep serve continues to improve, and it must because the elite women, such as Serena, Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, and Li Na, pound weak serves mercilessly. “What the smaller players have learned from Hingis is that you just can’t [only] start a point with your serve,” rightly asserts 1980s superstar John McEnroe. "Hingis' serve was a waste. Henin won points on her serve; she could do damage with it. And Halep is capable of serving reasonably well and winning some points with her serve. You can’t get away with just spinning your serve in. It’s such a liability for [Sara] Errani.”

Against Sharapova, the 5’6”, 132-pound Halep averaged only 151 kmh (93.8 mph) on her first serve and 128 kmh (79.5 mph) on her second serve. Not surprisingly, she won only 57% of first serve points and just 30% of second serve points against one of the sport’s premier serve returners. She needs to add at least five mph to both serves to make her first serve a weapon and prevent her second serve from being a liability, particularly when she’s serving into the wind. The good news is that Halep’s fastest first serve was 174 kmh (108.1 mph), so she has the potential to add significant power as well as, ideally, more topspin. Power isn’t everything, though, and former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport says, “Simona’s serve is underrated because of the placement and variety. She never goes to one location on the big points.”

Halep volleys fairly well, though her modest reach makes her vulnerable at net unless she comes in behind a strong shot. She won a respectable 68% (23 of 34) of her net points against her last four Roland Garros opponents — Sloane Stephens, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Andrea Petkovic, and Sharapova. As her groundstrokes become more aggressive, she’ll come to net more to finish points.

Natural Talent

Halep’s diverse athletic and racquet abilities have drawn rave reviews from experts and opponents. “Simona reminds me mostly of Henin because she is as much of a natural athlete and as a good mover as Justine was,” says Virginia Ruzici, the 1978 French Open champion from Romania and Halep’s manager.

Indeed, the Halep Gallop is deceptively fast because she sprints so smoothly to distant shots and glides so effortlessly to nearby ones. That speed enables her to retrieve seemingly unreachable shots, much like Clijsters, and then race back into position for the next shot. It’s also becoming a big advantage offensively. “She’s driving power players like [Petra] Kvitova and Petkovic to desperation because the ball keeps coming back and she’s not making errors,” says Ruzici. “She’s a great defensive player. But she’s also a fantastic attacker now. She’s playing more inside of the court and taking the ball earlier. All the players fear her a lot, and they really don’t know how to play her.” Halep played the far more experienced Sharapova to a virtual stalemate until the 6’2” Russian eventually overpowered her to seize the last eight points of their three-hour, two-minute duel.

Sharapova smacked 46 winners to 20 by Halep, and that’s the gap Halep, who lacks a huge weapon—like a Serena serve, Ivanovic forehand, or Sharapova backhand — needs to narrow to capture major titles. Similarly, Dominika Cibulkova routed Halep 6-3, 6-0 in the 2014 Australian Open quarterfinals.

“Cibulkova was so aggressive she would not let Simona breathe,” recalls Ruzici. “She attacked Simona on the second serve, she attacked her from the baseline. This is the type of player who can give Simona trouble — players who are stronger than her, players who hit with a lot of violent aggression, and don’t give her time to develop her own game. That was the case with Serena Williams and Madison Keys. She lost to a strong player who was hot.”

Wim Fissette, who coached four-time major champion Clijsters and guided Sabine Lisicki to the 2013 Wimbledon final, started coaching Halep in February. All-time great Martina Navratilova likes how he’s unleashing her athletic talent. “She’s become much more aggressive, working with Fissette,” says Navratilova, a Tennis Channel analyst. “She was always playing it safe, and he said, ‘You have to go for it.’ And she’s willing to do that. That's a sign of a championship player right there — they’re able to go out of their comfort zone and learn new things and experiment. And it’s worked for her.”

Mary Joe Fernandez, a former finalist at the French and Australian Opens, agrees. “I love her game. She’s balanced. She doesn’t overplay [shots],” praises Fernandez. “She hits to the corners. She takes the ball early. She has a very complete game.” Of all the top players, the accurate-hitting Halep goes for the lines the most and seldom errs.

Halep’s subtle racquet skills surpass everyone’s, except perhaps those of touch wizard Agnieszka Radwanska. “She uses her opponent’s power better than anyone on the pro tour,” says Davenport, a Tennis Channel analyst.

How does she achieve that control? “Halep holds the ball on her racquet [strings] until the very last second,” explains Fernandez. “She has great timing. So she can redirect the ball so well. She has that really good balance of being steady but aggressive at the same time. She looks for opportunities [to attack].”

Mental Game

NBC analyst Mary Carillo likes the brainy way Halep implements that opportunistic counter-punching style. “She’s the new-age Martina Hingis,” praises Carillo, referencing Hingis’s brilliant tactics. After seeing her power defused by Halep, Petkovic said, “Against Simona, I have to play really aggressive, and you have to step into the court so she doesn’t have time to play her game. Because when she starts opening up the court [with angles], she plays super smart, and she really uses the whole court.”

During Indian Wells, Halep, a passionate student of the game, was asked what she does between matches to relax. She replied, “I don’t keep my mind off tennis. I’m thinking every day [about] tennis.” That single-mindedness has paid off. “She’s always thinking of solutions in a match; thinking of what to do if her A game is not working,” Fisssette told The New York Times.

When asked to describe herself in one word, the ever-candid Halep replied, “Nervous.” Maybe so, but the nervousness that ruined her performance against Cibulkova at the Aussie Open is rarely evident now. The new and improved Halep looked supremely poised and confident in her first major semifinal, polishing off Petkovic 6-2, 7-6 (4). And two days later when she walked onto Court Philippe Chatrier for the biggest match of her life, she smiled and waved to the crowd, appearing as relaxed as if she were about to have a practice session. Nadal predicted Halep would win the final if she could handle her nerves — something Lisicki and Dinara Safina failed dismally at in their debut Grand Slam finals. Nadal predicted Halep would win the final if she could handle her nerves — something Lisicki and Dinara Safina failed to do in their debut Grand Slam finals. Stage fright? No way. Halep broke Sharapova's serve to win the opening game, and at deuce in the next game, she belted a backhand winner and forehand winner to zoom ahead 2-0.

Another test of how well a player deals with the pressure comes on break points. In her crucial matches against Stephens, Kuznetsova, Petkovic, and Sharapova, Halep converted a terrific 69% (22 of 32) of her break point opportunities. Rather than recoiling from the high-stakes challenge, Halep relished it.

In the final, “Halep matched Sharapova’s intensity, and that’s not easy to do,” noted Carillo. That intense yet calm demeanor was especially impressive considering perfectionist Halep’s past history of berating herself when she missed shots she felt she should have made. Ruzici believes that what turned her career around as much as anything is that Halep no longer lets her volatile emotions get the best of her.

“It’s better to play relaxed than to play with pressure,” agrees Halep. “Now everyone in Romania expects me to win all the matches, but I’m just a normal girl and want to have pleasure during the matches.”

Just as Halep’s technique and tactics are becoming more aggressive, Ruzici believes her mental game must evolve, too. "Simona needs more killer instinct!" stresses Ruzici. "Sharapova and Serena have an incredible killer instinct."

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Paul Fein

Paul Fein has received more than 30 writing awards and authored three books, Tennis Confidential: Today’s Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies, You Can Quote Me on That: Greatest Tennis Quips, Insights, and Zingers, and Tennis Confidential II: More of Today’s Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies. Fein is also a USPTA-certified teaching pro and coach with a Pro-1 rating, former director of the Springfield (Mass.) Satellite Tournament, a former top 10-ranked men’s open New England tournament player, and formerly a No. 1-ranked Super Senior player in New England.