close
SliderTennisVideoVideos

One-on-one with Simona Halep, 2016 Coupe Rogers champion

Two weeks ago, Simona Halep was winning a tournament in her homeland of Romania. This week, almost 4,500 miles away from Bucharest, she won another tournament…and, once again, it felt just like home.

With a sizable Romanian community coming out to Stade Uniprix to cheer her on, Halep won her second consecutive tournament and her third in 2016, defeating American Madison Keys 7-6 (2), 6-3, and claiming the 2016 Coupe Rogers tournament in Montréal. Last year, in the same event but in a different city (Toronto), Halep also reached the final, but had to retire due to dizziness in her championship match against Belinda Bencic. Today allowed a built-in excuse to be well short of her best health also; She and her doubles partner, Monica Niculescu, happened to reach the final, with Halep having to play doubles after her singles match. Whatever fatigue she was feeling subsided with the help of the supportive, boisterous yellow-shirted Romanians in the stands as she won a tight first set before cruising to victory.

After the match, A Lot of Sports Talk‘s Adesina O. Koiki caught up with Simona for an interview, and they talked about, among other things, the Romanian fans that came out to support her as well as how proud she is that she also made her first ever final in doubles despite ultimately losing that match.


[Cover photo (Halep) courtesy of Minas Pangiotakis/Getty Images North America]

Facebook Comments Box

Leave a Response