Wimbledon champion Simona Halep and her coach, Port Adelaide board member Darren Cahill, visit Alberton Oval
Romanian tennis superstar Simona Halep took some time to visit her beloved Port Adelaide Football Club on Tuesday morning alongside coach Darren Cahill.
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World No. 4 ranked women’s tennis player Simona Halep has shared her experiences with the Port Adelaide Football Club.
The 2019 Wimbledon and 2018 French Open champion – in South Australia for the inaugural Adelaide International – joined her coach, Power board member Darren Cahill, in talking to the Power players at Alberton Oval on Tuesday morning.
Romanian Halep, a Power ambassador and wearing a Port cap, joined the players for breakfast before showing highlights of her career, sharing her story and then taking questions from the playing group.
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Senior assistant coach Michael Voss said the players lapped up Halep’s story of determination and persistence, while understanding the level of care between a player and coach.
“Clearly there is a great relationship between coach and player, a really healthy respect there which is what we’re trying to obviously achieve,’’ Voss told the club’s website.
“But the big thing for us is just being able to have exposure to really high level, elite athletes in any field and hearing their stories.
“What we find is that they are all very similar.
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“We have the same doubts throughout our careers, we go through adversity as players, through those experiences we learn what’s right and what’s wrong and we make ourselves better as footballers and as people and we heard that loud and clear through her story.’’
Amazing experience to have tennis superstar @Simona_Halep visit Alberton Oval and speak to the boys this morning.
— Port Adelaide FC (@PAFC) January 14, 2020
Join us in wishing her good luck as she kicks off her Adelaide International campaign tonight 🎾💪#weareportadelaide pic.twitter.com/vJbnneFVVn
Voss said an important part of Halep’s message was consistency, which was important to Port given its Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde form in the past two years.
“The big thing when you look at the tournaments she’s been exposed to is that she had her disappointments in the early part of her career before she learnt to win on a regular basis,’’ he said.
“But it’s through those experiences that you learn to become a more consistent person and a more consistent performer.
“The stories she shared with us have been all around that, not just about the triumphs she had early in her career but the real disappointments and how she wasn’t able to replicate that on a consistent basis.
“All those experiences she’s taken away from that have made her the player she’s been in the past six years, a regular, high level performer where she hasn’t been lower than No. 4 (in the world) at the end of the year.
“That’s an incredible level of consistency of performance and durability.’’