Simona Halep has arguably had the best eight months on the WTA Tour this side of Serena Williams’ backhand. With wins at Indian Wells, Dubai, Shenzhen, and a tough three set loss to Serena in the championship of Miami, it is hard to find another player on tour (besides the aforementioned Serena Williams) with the same level of hard court success as Halep.
However, as the women of WTA Tour enter the final three-week push to Roland Garros, Halep has not had the same sort of success on damp terra cotta lead-in tournaments to the French Open. It would be easy to question the form of Halep, who brought a 25-4 record into Madrid. One might see a semi-final three-set loss to Caroline Wozniacki at Stuttgart as just a blip–a hiccup to the start of her clay court season. Wonziacki played more like the Grand Slam finalist of 2014, rather than the struggling counter puncher of 2015. However, that loss coupled with her opening round loss in Madrid to Alize Cornet some questions have arisen about Halep’s early clay court form.
Halep’s game–built upon athleticism, precision, and her fierce competitive nature–has seen a rise in unforced errors. At one point in the first set of her loss to Cornet, Halep was averaging two unforced errors per game. This has been a very un-Halep type stat over the past two years. Halep is known for not beating herself while applying constant pressure on her opponent to come up with something special to beat her. Halep’s second serve has also been an early liability. In Madrid, she faced ten break points, and although she saved seven of them, which is commendable, ten is a high number to have to defend. In her loss to semis to Wozniacki, Halep faced eleven break points as well. Halep’s return game has also lost some sting thus far on the clay. Cornet only faced one break point from Halep in Sunday’s loss. Halep’s break chances were diminished greatly by her inability to attack Cornet’s first serve, only winning 31% of first return points. Watching Halep play, there seems very little visibly wrong with her game, but as one nitpicks through the stats of the match, it becomes clearer where her last two matches have gone astray.
Having sorted through all of this, it is still too early to declare that Halep is not a French Open contender. Wozniacki played a much more aggressive sort of tennis in Stuttgart, the type of tennis that saw her close out 2014 with a US Open runner-up finish–it took her inspired play to defeat Halep. Also, Halep has always struggled with the power and unpredictable level of play from Cornet. Cornet holds a 3-1 advantage over Halep in the four matches they have played. These losses are not completely shocking. With her loss to Cornet, Halep now has an extra week on the practice court to groom her clay court form. A tireless worker, it is logical to predict she will come back crisper and focused in her French Open prep, and until the other women on tour establish both consistency and success on tour, it is impossible to not include her as one of the main (and probable few) challengers for the French Open crown.
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