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Simona Halep has been one of the brightest stars of the WTA tour in the last year, her emergence to the world number 3 spot impressing fellow players, fans and journalists worldwide. As a Romanian tennis fan, naturally I witnessed her steady improvement and her brilliant Roland Garros final against Sharapova, where she put on a fantastic performance despite losing in 3 tight sets. Simona can mix it up with the best at any time when it comes to movement or mental strength, and of course she has that sweet and effective two handed backhand, but what are the weaknesses she needs to work on in order to be a regular contender on the big stage?
1. Second serve
There`s no doubt that the second serve is Halep’s biggest weakness and every time she will meet a power-hitting, offensive player she will be attacked when her first ball does not find the court. In the Roland Garros final against Sharapova, Halep barely won 30% of her second serves and was always forced to the defensive by the Russian’s heavy returns – a scenario which has repeated time and time again over the course of her career. Halep has to learn and master the kick serve, as her height does not allow her to implement much more power on the second serve.
2. Versatility
Shortly: net play, drop shots, slice – she needs these. While Simona Halep’s reactive brand of tennis is effective and relatively interesting to watch, versatility is a big problem for her and she can rarely come up with anything else than solid baseline play. The Romanian’s volley is non-existent and every time she is forced to the net she seems (and is) uncomfortable. This is by far the poorest part of Simona`s game but, luckily for her, in today`s tennis net play has lost its importance. Nevertheless, this aspect of her game needs to be improved to at least a decent level and she will need it on the faster surfaces. She also has to improve her drop shots, a shot she has yet to master and that lost her a lot of points over the course of Roland Garros, as well as the backhand slice, a crucial defensive shot that she barely uses – and when she does, it is not effective.
3. First serve
Halep does not have a bad first serve, especially considering her height, but it could be better. The power is Ok, but more spin and kick would help. Most importantly, considering her issues with the second serve, she badly needs a higher percentage on the first ball, somewhere close to or over 70% as opposed to the 60% (or even less) she is producing at the moment.
4. Forehand
This might be a stretch, as her forehand is actually very good, but Halep herself stated that she needs to improve this shot, especially her cross-court angles. While she can hit the forehand very well, the shot does seem to betray here when she needs it the most, so a little bit more consistency combined with some small adjustments would do her very well. However, it would seem strange to me if she decides to work on this shot before sorting out her more pressing weaknesses.
I would not back the Romanian to do damage on fast surfaces, on the big stage, until she corrects at least some of these flaws. Simona Halep surely has the game and the potential to fight for major trophies and even the World Number 1 spot could be in her sight in the coming years – still, she will need a couple of improvements if she is to be a perennial contender for Grand Slams as opposed to a circumstantial challenger. If she will be able to do it, only time will tell.
some good points but nobod can be perfect. I think her game is not “relatively interesting” but very interesting
of course, this is not meant to be a negative article. She just needs to improve those aspects if she is to regularly content for Slams – that`s the idea of the text – “can she contend, what improvements are needed”. About her game I don`t know, it`s nice to watch but I don`t rate it as very interesting if she doesn`t rush to the net or hit a good drop shot from time to time (matter of taste I suppose).
I think that Simona can win some Slams in the future. I really think that she will be above most players in the next 5 years and the chance will smile to her and give her some easy draws for her confidence and than afterwords she will be the top seed someday.
Time will tell. As far as I`m concerned she has too many weaknesses for a top 5 level and must work on them, also she did have the easy draws you are talking about already this year. With players like Serena, Ivanovic or Azarenka getting back to form it will be that much harder for her. I do think she has a chance at Roland Garros, but without wanting to be a hater I think this year has been her pinnacle. Just my opinion, maybe she`ll prove me wrong at these Finals in Singapore (after all I was already wrong by never expecting her to reach 2nd place or reaching the Wimbledon semis).
I think she proved you wrong man 🙂 , she’s in the semis :D. I do agree with some parts of the article but let’s be honest the level of tennis in the WTA is not what it used to be after a lot of great players retired. Sure there is still Serena, Sharapova and I would include Kvitova (if she wouldn’t be so inconsistent at times), but other than that I really don’t see a big difference between a lot of the top 20 players. I would have included Azarenka but she really didn’t look good after her comeback so I don’t know what to make of her in the future. Ivanovic for some would be on that list but to me she is to much of an emotional player to place her there. Halep is a good player who I think is going to be in the top 10 for a long time, not necessarily because she has an incredible level of tennis, but because she is a dedicated worker and she is much more consistent then other players at this point. Sure there are also a lot of young players that are starting to make their mark but with the exception of Bouchard and maybe Bencic none really look to have great champion genes.
I guess what I don’t agree with is the First service article, sure it’s true that the second service is kind of bad for her but she needs to risk a lot of first services and generate power into them, rather than raise the % on them. For example let’s take Errani who is close to Halep’s height and serves at 80-90 % with the first service but she just puts the ball in court with 120-140 km/h which is useless.
Overall I think we people from Romania should be thankful that after a long long (and very long) time we finally have someone playing at a high level in sports generally. Sure she has things to improve but who doesn’t. Even the great Serena Williams says it every time, that she still has something to improve (even if I don’t really think so 🙂 )
well now I`m left looking like an idiot after a 6-0 6-2 win over Serena:). Of course, I`m kidding, a match does not change anything and I stand by everything I wrote. I totally agree with your first paragraph, It`s exactly what I`m thinking.