The monkey is finally off Simona Halep’s back. The Romanian triumphantly concluded her chase for the elusive Grand Slam crown after outclassing Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in a topsy-turvy final at Roland Garros on Saturday. 

After biting the dust twice in her previous two final appearances on the revered red clay, including her defeat against Maria Sharapova in 2014 and Jelena Ostapenko in 2017, Halep ended the jinx of losing an overall three Grand Slam finals before the 2018 French Open final.

Led by 5-2 in previous head-to-heads, including the pair's past four meetings, the top-ranked player made a lackluster start as her American opponent broke her a couple of times to pocket the opening set. Things turned bad to worse for the Romanian as she was broken at the start of the second set to see herself 2-0 down. However, an unfazed Halep gathered momentum and clawed her way back into the game in no time. Thanks to her resurgent display, the world no. 1 edged past Stephens in the second set before she turned unstoppable in the final set and raced to a lop-sided 6-1 victory in the third set as well as in the match to lift the coveted Suzanne Lenglen trophy.

Statistically, this was Halep’s second singles crown at Roland Garros as she had won the 2008 girls' title and thus, became the sixth player to have won the women's singles title in Paris after winning the girls' singles title. 

An emotional Halep told the reporters, “It's a special moment, I was dreaming for this moment since actually, I started to play tennis. It's my favorite grand slam, and I've always said that if I'm going to win one, I want it to be here.” The 26-year-old also became the second Romanian woman to win a Grand Slam title following in the footsteps of her manager Virginia Ruzici's triumph at Roland Garros in 1978.

“Yeah, it's a motivation and inspiration also for 40 years ago she won here. So it was a special moment and the fact that it happened this year is pretty special, so yeah she's an inspiration.”

On the other hand, the reigning U.S. Open champion Stephens, who already moved up to fourth at latest WTA rankings after reaching the final, has broken into the top five for the first time in her career.