Halep suffered a panic attack on the track and was defeated

Simona Halep19th in the world and champion of Roland Garros in 2018, eliminated this Thursday in the second round of the Parisian Grand Slam, defeated by China qinwen zheng (74th), 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.

From the middle of the match, the Romanian seemed to be not at his best physically. Several times he seemed to be out of breath, even though he still had to squat down with his forehead resting on his racket once. He called the doctor twice in the third set.

A few hours later, the 30-year-old Romanian explained that he had suffered a “panic attack”.

“It hasn’t happened to me yet. I don’t know why it happened, because I’m top of the scoreboard, there’s no reason for this to happen to me. I feel like I have no control over my body, “she said.

In fact, Halep easily won the first set before he started making more errors (15 against 4 in the first set), giving the Chinese serve three times in the second set. And being only a shadow of himself in the third, only getting one game in the last 11 played.

“Maybe I put too much pressure on myself, maybe I want to do it right, I don’t know,” the Romanian continued. “After the game it was very hard, I needed some time to return to my normal state. But now I feel good,” he said, stating that he didn’t suffer any physical injury.

For more than a year, the Romanian has suffered a lot of damage. Last year he didn’t get Roland Garros and he couldn’t defend his title Wimbledon. Recently, due to a thigh injury, he was forced to withdraw from the tournament. WTA 1000 in Miami late March. He explained in an interview with Eurosport that stress and anxiety can cause his physical problems to escalate.

Halep is in the first round, now coached by Serena Williams, Patrick Mouratoglouis in trouble against the German Nastasja Schunk165 in the world.

Zheng, 19, is taking part in his first Roland Garros, getting the best win in his short career, the first of a top-20 player in the world.