Simona Halep believes this year's French Open victory has helped justify her position as the women's world number one, with the Romanian saying she was now playing pressure-free tennis and motivated to add more Grand Slam titles to her resume.
Speaking to a small gathering of reporters in a phone interview on Friday, the 26-year-old also earmarked U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka as a huge prospect for the future after the Japanese player made her major breakthrough in New York.
"My dream was to become number one and I managed that last year and then my goal was to win a Grand Slam because some consider that a sign of being a true number one," Halep, who has topped the rankings for 46 weeks in total, explained.
.@Simona_Halep believes this year's @rolandgarros victory has helped justify her position as the women's World No 1https://t.co/P5L5tRpcOg
— Firstpost Sports (@FirstpostSports) September 21, 2018
"So my motivation was to win a major after I reached the top of the rankings and now I feel relaxed after achieving both. I am still motivated to win every match and now the pressure feels off, I can just feel the pleasure of playing."
Halep knows all too well the pain of losing a Grand Slam final after suffering three failures in as many title matches before she rallied past American Sloane Stephens in Paris to prevail 3-6 6-4 6-1 on her favourite clay surface in June.
The mental and physical exertion of that triumph seemed to take a toll on the base-liner midway through the season but Halep believes her form in North America indicated she was close to playing her best tennis.
#SimonaHalep believes this year’s #FrenchOpen victory has helped justify her position as the women’s world number one, with the Romanian saying she was now playing pressure-free tennis and motivated to add more #GrandSlam titles to her resumehttps://t.co/2Iz6JkVOai
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) September 22, 2018
"It wasn't a huge disaster after I won the French Open. I won in Canada and reached the final in Cincinnati in consecutive weeks," she said.
"That meant a lot to me and gave me confidence to believe my level is still there, but in the Grand Slams... at Wimbledon I was really tired and emotional, and grass is always difficult for me.
"I did have a match point in the third round (loss to Hsieh Su-wei) and Kaia Kanepi just played really well at the U.S. Open and I just couldn't put it together to win the match or make it closer," she added of her first round loss in New York.
Halep feels Grand Slam triumph justifies number one rankinghttps://t.co/s2V48kfdIs pic.twitter.com/oiGdYQcjje
— StarSport (@StarSport_my) September 21, 2018
"I feel my form is really good now but you never know, we'll see... I am just trying to stay focused and do my best."
