Simona Halep, the Romanian tennis professional, has held the ranking of world no.1 twice between the years 2017 and 2019. Halep performed splendidly in the hard courts of Indian Wells, and had a run till the semifinals, where she lost to the eventual victor of the tournament, Iga Swiatek. Although she has regained her form, an unfortunate injury is keeping her off the court. However, she is making use of her time wisely by training under one of the greatest coaches.

Simona Halep Has Joined Hands With Patrick Mouratoglou

Patrick Mouratoglou, the French tennis coach in an interview, spoke about his collaboration with the two-time grand slam champion and said, “I’ve always respected Simona as a player. I think she’s an incredible competitor. She quite often gave very difficult matches to Serena.”

Further, he recalled a match from when he was Serena’s coach, though Halep’s performance was the one that stunned him. He said, “I mean, Serena beat her most of the time, except one very important match, which was the final of Wimbledon in 2019, where she played incredible tennis.” 

Thereafter, he admitted how keen Simona used to be whenever she played against the 23 times Grand Slam Champion by saying, “When Serena would drop her concentration a little bit, that’s when Simona would be on top of her straight away.”

Patrick is a world-renowned tennis coach who has helped players like Alexander Zverev and Serena Williams in achieving great career heights. Adding to that, he also runs an academy to shape stars of the coming generation such as Coco Gauff.

What Does Patrick Think of Simona?

Patrick isn’t a pushover, he trains only those whom he finds worthy. Hence, taking Simona under his wings isn’t an act of keeping himself busy now that Williams is in a recovery period. He has always had strong opinions about the players he opts to back and the same goes for the Romanian.

He said,” I felt she was a very emotional person, which I say in a positive way. I think I think it’s a great thing to have emotions and to accept our emotions because we are humans.”

“I felt she was smart and I’ve had the confirmation. She is smart, and quite deep in her thoughts. And so it’s always very interesting to discuss with her. I really take a lot of pleasure talking to her.” He added.

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The former world no.1 will not be attending Charleston Open and Fed cup this year owing to her Indian Wells injury. However, Simona will most probably be present in France for Roland Garros.