Simona Halep: Why French Open champion fully deserved to beat Sloane Stephens - Courier
SIMONA HALEP’s victory over Sloane Stephens in the French Open final was poetic justice after she fell at the final hurdle of the 2017 tournament.
That is the opinion of tennis pundit and four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier.
Halep won her first Grand Slam title, beating Stephens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 at Roland Garros.
She had lost her previous three finals, including to Jelena Ostapenko in Paris last year.
The Romanian won the first set of that match before Ostapenko came back, similar to the way Stephens lost today.
I think there’s a little bit of poetic justice that Simona Halep won in the way that she did here
And Courier says Halep deserved to win in that fashion.
“I think there’s a little bit of poetic justice that Simona Halep won in the way that she did here,” he said on ITV.
“She’s been in a winning position in this match last year and wasn’t able to finish it.
“This time it was Sloane Stephens who was up a set and up a break and Simona really flipped it around on her.
“A tremendous tournament Sloane Stephens has played but it felt to me potentially in the third set she wasn’t feeling quite as strong physically as Halep.
“Halep really sprinted through the tape and deserved every bit of it.”