Simona Halep ‘feeling great’ after win and admits ‘it’s an honour’ to have Patrick Mouratoglou as a coach

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A screaming Simona Halep

Simona Halep continued her impressive start to her partnership with Patrick Mouratoglou as she dispatched world No 2 Paula Badosa in straight sets at the Madrid Open.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Halep started working with Mouratoglou, who coached Serena Williams for more than a decade, in April and the WTA 1000 event in Spain is their first tournament together.

After beating Zhang Shuai in the first round on the clay of Madrid, Halep followed it up with a superb 6-3, 6-1 win over local favourite Badosa.

Naturally the Romanian was delighted with her win over a player who came into the match high on confidence while she also paid tribute to her new mentor Mouratoglou.

“I feel great, I felt I was playing some good tennis and I’m really happy about it,” Halep said.

“She is very good at this moment. She is No 2 in the world so it’s just confidence. She was playing great but I believed I had my chance so I gave everything I had.

“It’s a pleasure and an honour to have Patrick in my box as a coach. We are working very hard on some things and as I see I am playing very well every match. I’m just focusing on getting better and getting stronger.”

For Badosa it was a tough defeat on home soil as she admits the pressure of playing in front of her home crowd took its toll.

“It’s not the best moment right now. (I feel) quite bad. I don’t know. It’s tough to lose at home,” the Spaniard said.

“It’s been a tough week, as well. Very stressful, a lot of things. Tough draw, as well. But it goes how it goes, and I have to accept it.

“I think I need days off, because there are some tournaments that they seem like five, and this is the case right now. So, yeah, I think I will have to rest a little bit.”

Patrick Mouratoglou Paula Badosa Simona Halep

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