Simona Halep admits: “I’ve been on lockdown for 6 years”

The en-titre Wimbledon champion, Simona Halep, is undoubtedly disturbed by the fact that she can’t compete for trophies and titles, but the Romanian first racket took advantage of this no-tennis window and explored the other facets of her soul. Now that she’s done it, Halep feels grateful for the time spent in lockdown. 

“I learned a lot from the two-month isolation. I realized that in the last 6 years I've been actually on a total lockdown. It occurred to me that I have to change something in my life, in order to also develop on the emotional and personal side,” Halep said as quoted by Agerpres.

“The fact that I've been on lockdown for 6 years has helped me become world No. 1, but now, for me to have a happy life without tennis, I am slowly trying to experience new feelings, see something else. My mindset is such that it tells me I have to be home at 22 in the evening because I have to train the next morning. I can't let go completely, but I've progressed a bit. And I'm proud.”

Simona Halep: “For the first time, I watched nature unfold…”

As she put all her focus on the sport that made her famous, Simona Halep missed many other pleasures of life and now, with the tennis break, she finally managed to get rid of the jet lags, hotel rooms. and countless workout sessions. Instead, she got to embrace the beauty of nature and the blossoming of spring.

“For me, this was the ideal time because I experienced what it feels like to live at home for three months without going anywhere. No planes, no hotels, no nothing. I did my workouts at home, I also skipped on them because I could afford it, knowing that we won't play until August and I told myself that I still have time,” Halep said.

“I'm lucky to live in a forest area and the trees were turning green from one day to another. And now I realized that I never stayed home to watch how spring sets in, to watch this beautiful harmony. For the first time, I watched nature unfold ... it's incredible.”

In order to achieve world number one and bagging multiple Grand Slam titles, Halep did give up at many things, indeed, and she admits it. “Now I realize these years have been – not hard, but a time of constant rush. I was running full-throttle all the time and I was blocking everything out. I had just one goal, tennis and nothing else,” Halep said.

“I'm tough on myself, I'm my biggest critic and this has helped me. But when you demand increasingly more of yourself, the limit moves up... Our limit is not fixed, you can make it more elastic. In 2017, when I lost the second Grand Slam final - I'm talking about it because it left a mark on me - I could say that was my limit ... but I have always pushed my limit and little by little I won.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2TVBliP