Two-time French Open runner-up Simona Halep’s coach Darren Cahill is astonished with the rise of his charge to the top of the women’s rankings.
Cahill, who was speaking to the New York Times, said that he was extremely proud of Halep’s achievements, especially considering the fact that the Romanian was struggling with an injury at the start of 2017.
Cahill said: “I’m surprised she was able to do it after the start of the year she had. She had patellar tendinitis from November, December last year, which she couldn’t shake. So she went into the start of the year with this nagging knee injury we thought was going to be O.K. and then it wasn’t. So her year didn’t really get going until Miami.”
“We had a long conversation before she started playing in Miami that this might be a reset year, and we will have to concentrate on different things and keep improving as an athlete and as a tennis player and not worry so much about the race to Singapore. And then we had that little incident in Miami, which was another reset. So a lot happened in the first four months of the year.”
The Australian emphasized: “So the fact that she is sitting here at No. 1 is an absolute credit to her. She did win only one tournament and it was a big one, Madrid, but she has put herself in position many times. She got back to the final in Rome, twisted her ankle, 5-2, double-break up against Svitolina in that first set in the final and then made it back through to the French final. It was a heartbreaker in Paris against Jelena Ostapenko. She had tears a lot of nights for months after that with the memory of that and being so close and playing so well and that one sort of slipping through her fingers.”
“But I give her credit with all the sorts of kicks in the stomach she’s had to be able to keep coming out and keep putting herself in positions and keep wining and keep doing what she has done. It shows she has a remarkable strength inside. She’s much stronger than she believes she is.”
