There was a time when a place among the top 10 players in the world was the least Simona Halep expected of herself.
A former Wimbledon and French Open champion who held the No 1 ranking for 64 weeks, Halep had almost forgotten what it was like not to be ranked among the game’s elite. But after losing last summer to injury, the Romanian dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in more than seven years. Fearful she would never regain her former level, she told family and friends she was done with tennis.
After overcoming Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in Toronto to win her third Canadian Open title, Halep will be glad she stuck around. She has spoken frequently of regaining her old fire in the four months since she hired Patrick Mouratglou and, having claimed her first trophy in tandem with the French coach, she will return to sixth in the rankings on Monday with her sights set firmly on further success.
“I’ve been many years there,” said Halep. “But now I feel like it’s a big deal to be back in the top 10. I’m really happy with this performance. When I started the year I was not very confident, and I set the goal to be, at the end of the year, top 10. And here I am. So it’s a very special moment. I will enjoy it. I will give myself credit. I’m just dreaming for more.”
A summer that has brought a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals and a first WTA 1000 title in more than two years would suggest that more is eminently possible. Only Iga Swiatek, the world No 1, has bettered Halep’s 38 match wins this season, and the manner of her victory over the tenacious Haddad Maia, who seemed to have acquired an unstoppable momentum over the past week, only underlined the sense that she has become a more complete player than ever.
On an afternoon when the fortunes of both players waxed and waned, the most notable constant was Halep’s belief that she could turn the tables on a player who had ambushed her in the semi-finals of the Birmingham Classic two months ago. Haddad Maia offered the Romanian every opportunity to doubt herself, racing into an early lead in the first set, raising her level to run away with the second, and doggedly retrieving an early break in the decider. Through it all, and despite rarely touching the heights of which she is capable, Halep remained unflinching.
“It was a hard match, difficult match, because she played really, really well,” said Halep. “She’s a very tough opponent. She fought very hard until the end, so I had to stay there. I had to run, sometimes a lot. But I also believed, until the end, that I have the chance to win the match.”
For three games, it looked as though no amount of belief on Halep’s part could keep Haddad Maia at bay. The Brazilian had bullied Iga Swiatek’s second serve during her victory over the world No 1 earlier in the week, and as her opponent stepped inside the baseline to receive, bristling with aggressive intent, Halep could have been forgiven for having flashbacks to the early stages of her semi-final win over Jessica Pegula, who had treated her second delivery with similar disdain. Perhaps she did, for she hit four double faults to concede her opening service game.
“Terrible,” said Halep. “I’ve been stressed a little bit. I didn’t expect to do four double faults in one game. I don’t know if it [ever] happened before. But sometimes you have to accept that you are not great in some moments, and still [keep] fighting to calm down and to get the confidence back. In the end, it was much better serving.”
In truth, it was much better everything. Halep has adopted a more aggressive approach under Mouratoglou and, while she was never likely to outhit Haddad Maia, she has rarely been more willing to fight fire with fire. As errors crept into the Brazilian’s game and the weight of the occasion began to tell, Halep stood her ground and went to work, finding her range off the ground to reel off six straight games.
Yet if Haddad Maia has proven anything in a week when she has claimed the scalps of Swiatek and three other top-20 players, it is that she is a ferocious and indomitable competitor. The 26-year-old had come storming back from a set down against Belinda Bencic in the quarter-finals and here she took a leaf out of the same playbook, doubling down on her aggressive intent to produce her best tennis of the contest.
“I try to forgive myself, even if I miss, if I did something wrong,” said Haddad Maia, who will rise to a new career high of 16th. “Even when I lost six games in a row, I think Simona wasn’t playing her best tennis also. So maybe she could be nervous as well at this moment.
“But I was trying to play more aggressive, to do what my coach told me to do, because we know what the goal was. But I was not doing [it] the right way.
“I was just believing that I could improve during the match. I think tennis is a long match, it’s not a hundred metres, it’s like a marathon. So I was just trying to fight, and that’s why I could get through the second set.”
Haddad Maia was unable to capitalise on an opportunity to break early in the decider, and although she hit back immediately to reclaim a break in the next game, Halep was not to be denied. The closing stages were all about instinct, the 30-year-old falling back on the counterpunching style that has served her so well down the years as she hustled and retrieved, making shot after shot and refusing to give anything away.
“It’s been a battle today,” said Halep. “I’m really happy that I could be stronger in the important moments.”
In the men’s final in Montreal, Pablo Carreño Busta defeated Hubert Hurkacz, the Polish 10th seed, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.