She may not have played her cleanest or most dominant match, but when it mattered most, Simona Halep proved why she is the world’s third-ranked player in a straight-sets win over Yanina Wickmayer on Sunday night.
The No.3 seed saw off the challenge of the dangerously streaky Belgian 6-4 6-2, a victory that sends her through to her second consecutive Australian Open quarterfinal. The Romanian’s play when serving at critical junctures of the match was particularly impressive. After a tough first set approaching the 50-minute mark, Halep stepped up to the line to serve it out and smacked a forehand winner followed by two aces to hold at love. And with the match on her racquet leading 5-2 in the second set, she produced a pair of forehand winners either side of an ace to reach match point, and closed out her triumph with an unreturnable first serve. “I think I stayed very aggressive. I took the balls very fast. I served pretty well today. My serve helped me a lot in important moments, like in first set when I finished the set with two aces. It was very important moment,” she said.
Prior to that, it was a slightly disgruntled Halep who went about her business at Rod Laver Arena under lights. She struggled to find consistent length on her groundstrokes to pin the big-hitting Wickmayer back in the court, and the ball wasn’t always coming cleanly off her racquet face. Ever the perfectionist, she gesticulated in frustration after missed returns. “Some moments of the match you are frustrated, but it's normal. I have to accept my mistakes because it's normal to do some of them,” she said. “I just want to be perfect on court, but is not possible. The perfect doesn't exist.
So I try to keep my mind very focused for every point and to forget about the mistakes.
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