Halep came out on fire against Stephens, building a 6-1, 3-0 lead in about 40 minutes and looking headed for a comprehensive straight set win. Stephens showed a lot of fight from there, making the second set anything but comprehensive - she took five of the next six games to go up 5-4 second set. But the No.3-seeded Halep finished strong, closing out the American WTA Rising Star, 6-1, 7-5.
"The beginning of the match was really fast. I think I was really playing my best tennis," Halep said in her on-court interview. "She came back and changed the tactics, playing a little bit slower, and I lost my rhythm for a little bit. But I'm happy I could get it back and win the match in two sets in the end." Awaiting Halep in Thursday's semifinals will be the No.1-seeded Williams, who won a see-saw three-setter against No.27-seeded Sabine Lisicki earlier in the day (read more about that match here). Williams leads Halep in their head-to-head series, 4-1, but that one loss was painful - in the round robin portion of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last year, Williams lost to Halep, 6-0, 6-2, which was the equal-worst loss of her entire career in terms of games won.
It was also the first time in the history of the WTA where a Romanian beat the reigning No.1 player in the world. She rebounded very well when they played a few days later in the final though, winning, 6-3, 6-0.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario