INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA - World No.2 Simona Halep says she is not currently in talks with anyone to take up the coaching vacancy position on her team.
"In this moment, I'm not asking anyone," Halep told reporters at WTA All Access Hour on Wednesday, ahead of the first Premier Mandatory event of the season at the BNP Paribas Open. "I'm just chilling. I don't know what is going to happen, but I'm not asking anyone and I'm not in conversation with anyone,"
"I miss the voice next to me, I miss the advice. I miss the fact that someone is always behind you to give you advice. But the rest is pretty similar. I'm professional and I'm trying to do the [right] things even if the coach is not there."
But even the notoriously intense Halep admitted that sometimes - just sometimes - being in complete control has been a welcome novelty.
"I will tell you a story because it's funny," she said. "In Dubai, before the Tsurenko match, I was so tired. During the night I couldn't sleep very well. I woke at 8:00am and I was dead. I changed the alarm and I wrote to the boys that we will meet at 10:30am for breakfast.
"So I slept another two hours, I dressed for the match, I ate breakfast, and I went straight to the match.
"If I had a coach, that is impossible," Halep said, laughing. "At that moment I told the boys I said sometimes it's good without a coach."
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With a chance to return to No.1 after the fortnight, the 2015 champion comes into Indian Wells in good form and full of confidence after a quality start to the season. After a Round of 16 exit at the Australian Open to Serena Williams, Halep continued to build her confidence through February, scoring two big wins to lead Romania past the Czech Republic in Fed Cup, and making her first final of the season at the Qatar Total Open and semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Asked if she believed any of her 2019 losses could be considered 'bad losses', Halep shook her head no.
"Not really. I think all the matches were tough and I didn't give up a single ball. I think that's the most important thing for me mentally. All the matches were close and I felt that my level was right there, even if I lost the matches. I was leading both players in Doha and Dubai but sometimes a little bit is missing and you cannot finish the matches, but I feel good and I don't take negatives from those matches."
Halep said that little thing missing was her concentration in the late stages, but the 27-year-old is confident that playing more matches will fine-tune her game.
"I felt well, even at the beginning of the year in Melbourne," Halep said. "But I felt that I didn't have enough matches coming to those big tournaments.
"I still have that feeling, that I need more official matches, but I feel good. I feel that the level is there and I'm confident. If the confidence is there then everything is calm in your life."
"I'm healthy and confident because I played well in Dubai and Doha. So I'm happy."
Halep will open her Indian Wells campaign against Barbora Strycova on Friday.
