Simona Halep gracious in defeat after missing out on Australian Open title to Caroline Wozniacki

There could be no disguising her pain, but Simona Halep was able to put her third successive defeat in a Grand Slam final into perspective here on Saturday.

“I can still smile,” the Romanian said after her 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 defeat to Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open. “It's fine. I cried, but now I'm smiling.

“It’s just a tennis match in the end. But I'm really sad I couldn't win it. I was close again, but the gas ran out at the end. She was better. She was fresher. She had actually more energy in the end.”

Halep said she was proud of the way she had fought. “I did 100 per cent what I could today. I'm not sad for that. I'm sad that I lost the match and was not the winner, but life goes on. For sure in the future, if I keep working like this and I keep playing like this, I will be in a good position again.”

Asked if it helped to know that players like Kim Clijsters and Chris Evert had had similar losing runs before winning their first Grand Slam titles, Halep smiled. “Yes, but I want to win,” she said. “I’m still losing and I’m still waiting. Maybe the fourth one will be with luck.”

Halep thought she had paid a price for all her exertions earlier in the tournament, which included two epic contests with Lauren Davis and Angelique Kerber. She said she had suffered cramp in the second set which had improved in the third “but still the pain was there”.

She also said she had suffered tendon pain in her feet. “My right foot is swollen,” she said. “Both of them are dead.”

She added: “I was really tired. I had so many problems with my feet, pain everywhere. I think I did pretty well with all the things that were going on.

“After the first set, I just was out. I don't know what happened. No energy, no power. But then I just said that I had to hit all the balls, and then I could take the second set. I came back in the third set, but when I had to serve for 5-3, the gas was gone, so I couldn't make it.”

Halep said she had felt mentally ready to play the final but her body was not. “The muscles were tired and the feet were not good enough, but mentally I was ready,” she said. “I feel that I can face any challenge. I can play against anyone. I can win against anyone. But sometimes you just can’t physically do it.”

The Romanian said she did not feel the same as she had after her two previous losses in Grand Slam finals. “I played better,” she said. “I didn't move as I wanted because I couldn't, but the game was OK and the mental part was OK.

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“I think I have improved a lot in this tournament. I'm leaving Australia with many good thoughts and many positive things because I’ve done things over these last two weeks which I had never done in the past.”

Halep said she had no regrets about her performance. “Maybe in the first set I should have hit the ball like I did in the second and the third,” she said. “I just said to myself that I still had the energy to play with her.

“In the tie-break maybe I should have been more aggressive, but my energy was not enough. That’s why maybe I couldn't concentrate and I couldn't take the risk.”

She added: “I have set in my mind that I have to be more aggressive. That's why I'm going to the net, but today my legs were not going, or not fast enough. But still I did some points there. She was running very well. She responded very, very well. She does that all the time. A lot of credit to her.”

Halep said that her coach, Darren Cahill, had told her afterwards that he was proud of her. “He said that I've been the best mentally and physically [at the tournament], fighting till the end,” she said. “He’s happy with my performance.”