Tennis exhibitions/tournaments are starting to take shape again but for Simona Halep, she is still very much wary about returning due to lack of match practice.
Other players such as Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova are playing tournaments in Czech Republic, while Elina Svitolina will play behind closed doors in July but for Halep, she won't commit to similar right now.
“My longest break before the lockdown has been of 3-4 weeks and [returning to competitions] was very difficult for me. You lose pace, you lose focus … and then physically, if you idle about for a whole week you’ve lost half a year,” Halep said to news agency AGERPRES.
“I don’t know what others have done during this time, maybe some did training runs, maybe they did strength workouts, I don’t know, I can’t assume.
But I feel it on my own skin that it will be a bit difficult for me. It matters a lot that I haven’t had official matches. You can train five hours a day for a whole year, if you are not on an official game, you’re out when you step on court … I mean, you’re not in the game at all. There’s a big difference.”
Halep's time away from the sport has allowed her to evaluate her time away from the tour and that it has given her new perspective.
“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,” she added.
“It occurred to me that I have to change something in my life, in order to also develop on the emotional and personal side. 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.”