Paris: Thursday’s matches were over, and Simona Halep had left Roland Garros Stadium after reaching yet another Grand Slam final, this one to be played against Sloane Stephens.
But on the big video wall in the Place des Mousquetaires, there was still high-stakes tennis on display: a special screening of Julien Faraut’s documentary, ‘John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection,’ which focuses on McEnroe’s virtuoso 1984 season that included one discordant note.
That was his loss in the French Open final to Ivan Lendl, when he squandered a two-set lead. McEnroe, now 59, says the collapse still haunts him, troubling his sleep from time to time, making him wonder what might have changed in his life if he had just closed out Lendl.
One of the final shots of the film is McEnroe sitting on his chair after the match, his face buried in his hands as the seconds tick by.
For all his skills and sense of destiny, McEnroe never did win the French Open singles title. Neither did Martina Hingis, despite a game and tactical mindset ideally suited to the clay surface.
Strange things happen. There are no guarantees.
Halep, a sensitive soul who has sacrificed plenty for her craft, surely grasps this by now. Tennis at this level is not about paying dues and reaping the rewards. It is about seizing the opportunity before a fresh pain knocks you out of action or before a fresh face arrives with the insouciance and ability to shake up the hierarchy to your detriment.
Best not to wait too long to capitalise, and Halep, the No. 1 seed, now has another precious chance to do so in Paris on a Saturday.
She ensured that she will retain that No. 1 ranking next week by defeating Garbine Muguruza, 6-1, 6-4, on Thursday in a high-intensity semi-final full of loud wails of effort and ferocious baseline exchanges.
At times, it seemed as much a test of will as of tennis, and Muguruza, the No. 3 seed and 2016 French Open champion who would have displaced Halep at No. 1 with a victory, was the one who finally cracked.
But it is not the No. 1 ranking that truly interests Halep. She is 0-3 in Grand Slam finals, 0-2 in French Open finals. She has lost each in three tight sets: to Maria Sharapova in the 2014 French Open final, to the unseeded Jelena Ostapenko in last year’s French Open final and to Caroline Wozniacki in this year’s Australian Open final.
None were more painful than her slow fade last year against Ostapenko, one of those insouciant youngsters. Halep led 6-4, 3-0, within a point of going up by 4-0, before Ostapenko rallied to win. Halep reeled for weeks.
She regathered herself and rose again only to lose to Wozniacki in January on a steamy Australian summer evening: a duel so gruelling that Halep required hospitalisation after the match for severe dehydration.
But here she and her coach, Darren Cahill, are again, and if the crowd reaction on Thursday was an indication, she will not lack for support against Stephens on Saturday.
Halep, a superstar in Romania, has become a genuine sentimental favourite beyond her borders. If she is to maximise her chances, she should understand that and feed off it rather than block it out.
“Of course it’s a big opportunity,” she said after beating Muguruza. “I lost three times until now, and no one died, so it will be OK. But I will be, I think, more confident, because I have a lot of experience. But in tennis, you never know, so I will stay chill.”
Halep holds a 5-2 record against Stephens and has won their last four matches in straight sets. But Stephens has clicked into a much higher gear since they last played, in the semi-finals in Cincinnati last year.
Stephens went on to win her first Grand Slam title at the 2017 US Open, when she was ranked just 83rd and still early in her stunning comeback from foot surgery. Stephens then went straight into a slump, losing nine straight matches while dealing with knee tendinitis and other issues.
“I think life came at me fast after the US Open,” Stephens said.
But she is back in control after winning the Miami Open in March and now reaching her first French Open final. Come Monday, win or lose against Halep, she will for the first time be the top-ranked American woman, at No. 4 in the world.
“That’s cool,” Stephens said. “It’s normally, like, Venus and Serena, so, I mean, let’s be real.”
Seeded No. 10 here, she is clearly the best American player at the moment, as she underscored by defeating her friend Madison Keys, 6-4, 6-4, in Thursday’s much-less-raucous but no-less-athletic semi-final.
It was a much better spectacle than their lopsided match last year in the US Open final, in which Keys tightened up and won just three games. Keys, 23, was more herself this time, producing plenty of highlights with her textbook serve and huge groundstrokes. But she never truly troubled Stephens, who kept absorbing her pace and forcing her to come up with something better.
But Stephens also generated astonishing depth and the occasional viper-strike forehand winner when she deemed the moment right. She is not just a counterpuncher. She can throw a roundhouse, too.
“It’s really tough to get any ball by her,” Keys said. “But especially today she was neutralising so well, and she was hitting so many deep, heavy balls, that I really felt like I was having to go for a lot.”
Stephens’ potent blend of defence and offence is now going into the same Grand Slam shaker with Halep’s potent blend of defence and offence.
Balls will be chased at great speed. Winners will be earned. But this will also be a contrast in demeanours: Halep’s loud grunts and emotional expressiveness with Stephens’s sotto voce on-court zenitude.
For now, there is another contrast, too. Stephens knows she can win a Grand Slam title. Halep — and her growing support group — still have to wonder.
