Top seed Simona Halep ready to live up to hype at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship

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  • Huge week in store for Simona Halep in Dubai.

    It’s a tricky thing winning so many matches. On one hand, it arms you with immense confidence but on the other, it brings along huge pressure of expectation.

    Simona Halep is slowly learning that confidence and pressure come hand in hand and the Romanian world No3 is trying to figure out how to tackle the latter.

    Her rapid rise in the world rankings meant that she went from playing qualifying in Dubai two years ago to being the top seed here this week.

    The 23-year-old has won nine titles and reached the French Open final and Wimbledon semi-finals all within a 20-month period.

    She found herself leading Romania in the Fed Cup at home last week, and she describes holding that position as “terrible”. Halep lost her second singles match to Garbine Muguruza but the Romanian team still managed to squeeze through 3-2 over Spain in the World Group II action.

    “If you are first in your team it’s terrible I can say. I feel pressure and you get tired after a few days,” Halep told reporters in Dubai on Sunday.

    “Because you play for your country, and everyone is expecting you to win all your matches and I lost, so it’s not easy.”

    In 2013, Halep won every single final of the six she reached and it was the start of something special. She says that run gave her the belief she needed to stand up to the big guns and soon after she was French Open runner-up.

    In her last event of 2014, she beat Serena Williams in the group stage of the WTA Finals in Singapore, where she also took the runner-up trophy.

    But leading up to Singapore, Halep admitted to losing some confidence, and heading into Dubai this week, that feeling has crept back in.

    “I feel okay but I’m not at 100 per cent with my confidence. I believe in myself but I have to work well on my game and on my mind,” said Halep, who started her year with a title win in Shenzhen followed by a quarter-final showing at the Australian Open, where she lost badly to Ekaterina Makarova.

    Halep has made some ruthless decisions with regards to her team recently. After a phenomenal 2014, she parted ways with her Belgian coach Wim Fissette, opting to hire a fellow Romanian, Victor Ionita. She then added Maria Sharapova’s ex-coach Thomas Hogstedt as a consultant, but she revealed on Sunday that they are no longer working together, their partnership lasting barely over a month this season.

    “In Romania we have one mentality and it’s very tough for a player to understand other mentalities in other countries. So I prefer to stay with my Romanian guys and sometimes when I feel that I need help I can call every coach who is available and to work with them.

    “I now have adidas helping me in my next tournaments, so I feel great,” said Halep, who awaits Mona Barthel or Daniela Hantuchova in the second round in Dubai.

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