SIMONA HALEP IM QUARTER-FINALS OF THE FRENCH OPEN 2014

Simona Halep is on track to become the first Romanian to win a Grand Slam title since her manager Virginia Ruzici at Roland Garros 36 years ago after reaching the quarter-finals on Monday without the loss of a set.

With former Romanian men’s greats Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac watching on as well as the aforementioned Ruzici, Halep, the highest-remaining seed in the draw, looked composed throughout her 6-4, 6-3 defeat of dangerous American Sloane Stephens on Philippe Chatrier Court, and will play Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarter-final. “I’m really happy I’m in quarterfinals for the first time in my life here because I love Paris … 
I have a lot of confidence in myself. Day by day I play better. Here in the French Open I like the clay and feel very well. Here I don’t want to stop in the quarter-finals. I want to go far, so I have to be ready again,” Halep said. She is widely tipped to at least reach a maiden Grand Slam final at Roland Garros this year, given the seeds to have fallen in the bottom half of the women’s draw and based on her form coming in, having pushed Maria Sharapova to three sets in the Madrid final. If Halep was to go all the way she would emulate Ruzici’s 1978 breakthrough. ”Yeah she’s my manager so she’s also supporting me,” Halep said of Ruzici. “Maybe one day, in this life, if I’m to win a Grand Slam I’d hope it was here in Paris. Also with Ilie Nastase here [watching], I would be very happy if I could become the third [Grand Slam champion from Romania].” Stephens, the highest-ranked player yet to have won a title on tour, would have to be aggressive against the fleet-footed Romanian but when she made a wild drop shot attempt, which bounced half a dozen times before it even reached the net at 3-3, it was clear she was feeling the pressure, knowing she had to come up with something special to rattle her rock-solid opponent. 
Locked at 4-4, 15th-seeded Stephens won a 24-shot rally, drawing the backhand error from the world No.4 after both players had been dragged out of court. Halep responded with a backhand winner down the line before holding after a lengthy battle for 5-4. Stephens handed the diminutive Halep two set points when she found the net and Halep would require only one, taking it with a backhand down the line after 47 minutes. When Stephens’s backhand missed wide by centimetres to hand Halep the break for 3-1, Halep, with her fist raised, could see the finish line. She held to love with a well-placed wrong-footing forehand in behind Stephens for 5-2 and would serve it out two games later when the American lofted one last forehand long after one hour and 18 minutes. Hard to believe the Romanian arrived at Roland Garros only a year ago ranked 57th in the world.