If facing Paula Badosa for the first time was a step into the unknown for Simona Halep, everything else about the early stages of her Madrid Open campaign will have felt reassuringly familiar.
Back on her favourite surface at an event where she has traditionally thrived, Halep has spoken of regaining her old fire since hiring Patrick Mouratoglou as her coach earlier this month. The Romanian showed as much against Badosa, surging past the world No 2 with a poise and assurance that rekindled memories of her two title-winning runs at the Caja Mágica.
Yet it would be a mistake to imagine the Halep of old is back.
Unseeded this year as she seeks to work her way back up the rankings after the travails of last season, when a calf injury kept her out of the French Open and Wimbledon and saw her slip outside the top 10 for the first time in seven years, the world No 21 has already adopted a more aggressive style under Mouratoglou. It reaped dividends against Badosa, enabling Halep to dominate from the baseline against a player whose powerful serve and hefty groundstrokes would previously have encouraged her to fall back on the tenacious, counter-punching style that has traditionally been her hallmark.
“New Simona,” smiled the 30-year-old afterwards when asked if her 6-3, 6-1 victory was vintage Halep.
“I’m confident, I like how I played. I know this is the way I want to play, we want to play. We talked about it, and I trust 100% what Patrick tells me about the game.
“I’m really happy and pleased that I can do it on court, because it’s different when you practice [to an] official match. So the fact I could do it in an official match, with one of the best players in the world, gives me confidence.”
The pattern of the contest will have been uncomfortably familiar to Badosa. On Thursday, the Spaniard reeled off nine games in a row from 3-3 in the first set to win her opener against Veronika Kudermetova. This time out, the Spaniard received a dose of her own medicine, clawing back an early break with a run of three straight games only for Halep to regain the advantage in the seventh game after fashioning a break point with a sharply angled forehand winner. Badosa would win only more game.
“She played at a really good level,” said Badosa, who insisted her downfall was down to a combination of Halep’s excellence and her own erratic play, rather than a shoulder injury that required treatment midway through the second set.
“I haven’t played very well. It was 3-3, and then she broke me and she started playing really well. I started to miss a lot of balls. You know, as soon as you give her a small opportunity, she was able to go up in the score and was able to beat me.”
It had been clear from the outset that the Spaniard would have her hands full. Halep showed patience, resilience and no little quality, utilising her outstanding movement and defensive skills to contain Badosa’s power, while using deep crosscourt balls and short angles to pull the Spaniard wide. Anything short was summarily punished, Halep moving inside the baseline to take the ball on the rise and crush drives into the open court, and once she had taken the lead she was unstoppable, the quality of her shot-making leaving her opponent increasingly forlorn.
Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for Badosa, who had so desperately wanted to impress on home soil in her first event since displacing Barbora Krejcikova as world No 2. The 24-year-old, whose run to the semi-finals last season as a 62nd-ranked wildcard was the catalyst for her rise up the rankings, was inconsolable afterwards.
“It’s not the best moment right now,” said Badosa, who had been the highest seed left in the tournament following the withdrawal of world No 1 Iga Swiatek.
“Quite bad. It’s tough to lose at home. 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 seem like five [tournaments], and this is the case right now.”
For Halep, on the other hand – who has said she was “super close” to retiring last season as her form plummeted and her body failed her – the matches suddenly cannot come fast enough. Halep faces 16th seed Coco Gauff in the last 16, against whom she is unbeaten in two previous encounters, and if she can sustain her rich vein of form, there could be much more to come from a season that has already brought a title in Melbourne and semi-finals appearances in Dubai and Indian Wells.
“I didn’t know how much I can play, and how good I can play still,” said Haelp. “But now I’m a different person. I feel more confident. I feel that the pleasure helps me to work harder, to work more. I spend more time on the court.
“I think it’s everything coming from inside, and at this point I feel happy with myself. I feel that I have the chance to play good tennis again. Actually, it’s my number one priority in this moment. I feel again that fire.”