‘So honest, so brave’ – Simona Halep praised for revealing panic attack after shock French Open exit

Simona Halep has been praised for being “brave and honest” after revealing she had a panic attack during her French Open defeat on Thursday.

The Romanian called for the trainer and had her pulse and blood pressure taken during her 2-6 6-2 6-1 loss to Chinese teenager Qinwen Zheng in the second round at Roland-Garros.

Although she was given the all-clear to play on, she continued to have trouble with her breathing and the trainer came out for a second time.

“I was playing well at the start,” Halep said. “I had a break in the second set, but then something happened. I just lost it.

“I didn’t expect because it was just a panic attack.

“I didn’t know how to handle it, because I don’t have it often. Yeah, I don’t really know why it happened, because I was leading the match. I was playing well. But just happened, and as I said, I lost it. I couldn’t focus.”

Eurosport experts Tim Henman and Mats Wilander saluted Halep for being so open about her panic attack.

“First and foremost, we don’t want it to happen, it’s very unfortunate that it does happen,” said Henman.

“Again, I think it is so brave and so honest for Simona to come in and talk about what happened to her because I feel that can really have a positive impact on others that if they are struggling with a mental health issue that they have the bravery to speak about it and go and get help.

“Simona has been around for many years, she has won big titles so it just goes to show that it can happen to anyone. I thought it was amazing, really classy, after a really difficult defeat under difficult circumstances to come out and speak.”

Halep won the title at Roland-Garros in 2018 and her defeat to Zheng marked her earlier exit at the tournament since 2015.

Wilander added: “It was very scary times for her. You don’t know what’s going on.

“It was a good move by her to come out and explain what happened, ‘I am smiling and I am ready to keep on going’.

“So this is a brilliant PR move as well to show her opponents that this is something she had never experienced before.”