Simona Halep claims she had a mid-match ‘panic attack’, reveals ‘overthinking’ as the main reason for her French Open exit
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Simona Halep
Former champion Simona Halep bowed out of the 2022 French Open in the second round after losing to Chinese teenager Qinwen Zheng. Halep lost the match in three sets 2-6,6-2,6-1 in what will go down as a shocking result for her given the level at which she was playing this season.
The 2018 French Open champion was in complete control at the start of the match and was moving like a dream. He was on song on her serve and even took an early break. With a double break’s advantage, she eventually won the first set 6-2 and it was looking like a normal outing for the Romanian.
But courtesy of a few bad minutes, Halep completely bottled the match. He didn’t look like her normal self and struggled to move properly on the court. Her court coverage was affected badly and she wasn’t able to dictate points from the baseline as she did in the first set. She lost the second set 2-6 and had no momentum whatsoever going into the third. She eventually lost the third set 1-6 and didn’t even give a proper fight towards the end. It was later revealed that Halep was suffering from an illness that she developed mid-match. She even took a timeout for the same.
‘I couldn’t focus anymore’: Simona Halep
After the match, Halep shockingly revealed that she had a panic attack during the match. She added that it doesn’t happen to her much nd when it happened, she wasn’t able to focus throughout the match, and thankfully, she is well now. She also said that she will learn from this and reasoned overthinking for the attack despite leading in the match.
“That was just a panic attack. It doesn’t happen that much. I couldn’t focus anymore. Now it’s behind me and I can smile again. I will learn from this episode. It was overthinking. I was leading. There was no reason. But it happened. I have to accept it. It happens to everybody,” she said.
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)