VIDEO: Halep fails to lift Indian Wells trophy

Simona Halep is a many-splendored tennis player. She's crafty and fast. She possesses power, and she has the gall and guile to go up against decorated foes—current and former No. 1's and multiple-Slam winners—as if they are ranked below her. For this she should be praised, as she doesn't seem to flinch.

That said, she struggles to hold up the (remarkably heavy) trophy upon winning the biggest title of her career, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells:

Here's a tournament that is dubbed "the fifth Slam" all the more in light of billionaire owner Larry Ellison's renaissance of both the premises and the goings-on. (What's that you say? A Nobu restaurant? How posh.) But the Baccarat trophy that Halep took to both on court upon winning the event and later before the assembled press was too heavy for her to handle in the moment. "How many kilos?" she quipped before demurring, ultimately standing and ending her presser and, as she put it, avoiding injury, as she "really wants to play Miami."

Aye, Simona. Stay the course. It seems that the patient and deceptively wise 23-year-old will soon enough raise even more important (if not weightier) trophies. And she will not wave off hoisting them up for all to see.

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