"I thought I might not play at 30, in fact I was injured a little last year and I started the year with a good start, but I was still a little less confident, so I thought maybe this was my last year of playing professionally."
Halep, who is preparing for the Madrid tournament, recently gave a media interview, generously revealing his past psychological feelings, "Until I joined the Moratoglu Online School, I had never been to the tennis academy before, I felt that I was back to the 15 or 16 years old, I found my inner flame of tennis." 」 ”
"Because I see a lot of kids here who do their best every day to be the top players and it inspires me, it's really fantastic!"
Born on September 27, 1991, Halep is about to turn 31 years old, which is already half a foot on the threshold of retirement for professional players.
Halep won the Grand Slam women's singles title twice at the 2018 French Open and Wimbledon in 2019, and on 9 October 2017 she reached number one in the world rankings for the first time and spent 64 weeks on the throne behind the ball.
Halep accidentally injured her leg while competing in Rome in mid-May last year, and she has been trying to return to the stadium since then, but the Romanian, who has not recovered, has withdrawn from many major tournaments including the French Open and Wimbledon.
Fortunately, Halep made her comeback at last year's US Open, reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open this season and reaching the women's singles final four in dubai and Indian Wells, and is now provisionally ranked 21st in the world rankings.
This week's race in Madrid is Halep's clay debut for the 2022 season and her return to clay after Rome's injury last year.
Harlep has always been known as a clay master in the past, and the French Open is naturally her best Grand Slam event, reaching the women's singles final of Roland Garros in 2014.
As a former champions in Madrid (Halep won the women's singles title twice in 2016 and 2017), Halep's first-round opponent this year is China's Jinhua Zhang Shuai.
The two have met four times before, with Halep winning 2 and losing 2.
Halep, Indian Wells, in the first round in 2012, won with two 6-1 sweeps over Zhang Shuai, but the next two times (the 2016 Australian Open and the Chinese Open) were won by Zhang Shuai.
The last time the two played each other was in the Wimbledon quarterfinals of the 2019 season, when Halep won 2-0 and won the final women's singles title.
The first round of this match will be played at 18:30 Beijing time today, which is worth looking forward to!
It is worth mentioning that there is another Chinese golden flower in the women's singles table - Zheng Qinwen will face Mukhova earlier today (17:00 Beijing time), do you think she can qualify? (Source: House of Tennis Author: Barbie)