No excuses from Simona Halep after ‘unprofessional attitude’

Wimbledon

Simona Halep was pretty honest in her assessment of her Wimbledon exit, saying her inability to see out the win was “unprofessional”.

The reigning French Open champion won the opening set against Hsieh Su-wei, but the Taiwanese player levelled things in the second set.

Halep, though, looked to be cruising to victory in the decider as she was 5-2 up and had a match point, but Su-wei hit back to win 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

“I will not find the excuses about this match, she deserved to win, but still I’m sad about myself,” the Romanian said.

“Definitely I gave everything I had on the game side. I was fighting till the end for every ball.

“I just was too negative to myself, talking too much. I think because I was tired, because I’m tired, I couldn’t stay focused for every ball.

“I was leading the match, I was up, and I couldn’t finish it. I’m not (being) hard (on myself). I’m just realistic and honest. I accept that it was an unprofessional attitude.”

The world No 1 has still had an excellent year as she finished runner-up to Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open and then won at Roland Garros.

The US Open is just a few weeks away, but Halep feels she needs a breather.

“I think mentally I was tired. Also physically I feel tired. My muscles are gone,” she said.

“But mentally I was tired. I couldn’t stay focused, to handle the pressure, the tension of the match.”

As for her plans for the next few weeks, she said: “Anything but tennis. Chilling, resting, doing nothing. Just enjoying life. I gave everything I had to tennis this period. Now I want just to spoil myself, to be a normal girl, and enjoy life.”

Simona Halep

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