Halep: I worked too hard
Following her French Open exit, Simona Halep claims she may have worked too hard in training.
Simona Halep claims she worked too hard in the build-up to the French Open, where she crashed out courtesy of a second-round defeat on Wednesday.
The Romanian - runner-up to Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros last year - was beaten 7-5 6-1 by Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who also knocked her out of last year's US Open.
Halep bemoaned an ill-judged bid to introduce more power to her game and insisted she would revert back to the training methods that brought her success in 2014.
"I didn't play like last year on clay this year," she said. "It was more difficult to come here. I couldn't feel like I was prepared 100 per cent to play on a clay court, but I have to accept this.
"I have to take it day by day. I worked a lot, maybe too much. That's why I was contracted and I couldn't feel the game.
"That's tennis and I have to go forward because next week I have something new."
Halep was keen not to take anything away from Lucic-Baroni, adding: "She played well and I couldn't play my best today.
"It was not about the pressure, it was just I couldn't feel the game.
"I didn't have a good feeling of my game, so that's why I couldn't change something."
Halep received treatment for a hand injury late in the opening set, but subsequently revealed the problem was a blister which was "not serious".