"The most beautiful thing is the mental part" says Simona Halep on Emma Raducanu

It was Halep that heaped praise on Raducanu during her pre-event press conference in Cluj-Napoca. Halep touched upon the success of Raducanu at the US Open explaining:

“I heard many people talking about this – what she’s done is amazing, it’s huge to win at 18. In Romania, we have had big champions in tennis – we had Virginia Ruzici, Ilie Năstase, a history in the sport. Then a gap and then I came with the big results. [There is] a big community of sports fans, who follow everything and go everywhere they can with the Romanian flags – it’s a big boost for everybody in Romania when somebody wins a big tournament. They fit themselves into that success.”

Despite being British and representing Britain internationally, Raducanu was adopted by Romanian tennis fans as their own. The Brit has Romanian ancestry through her father who was born and raised in Romania. Halep joked about that saying:

"Raducanu being a very specific Romanian name, they feel like she is Romanian. It is very, very Romanian.”

Halep was very impressed with Raducanu at the US Open and asked to break down her game she said:

“I think what impressed me was her aggressiveness, she plays aggressive – but not very strong, or powerful, but rather very intelligent, very smart. And she’s moving very well, as well. What was the most, let’s say beautiful thing that I saw is the mental part. To be so young and to be so calm, and like very powerful on the emotions, it was impressive.”