French Open: Simona Halep reaches her first Grand Slam final
Simona Halep continued her relentless climb up the ladder of women’s tennis with a convincing performance against Andrea Petkovic to reach the first grand slam final of her career with a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory. The 89 minute straight sets win means Halep has become the first woman since Justine Henin in 2007 to reach the final without losing a set. In the finals, the Romanian will take on Maria Sharapova, who has fought back from a set down in her last three matches.
Halep is the highest remaining seed in the tournament, but having never made it past the quarters of a grand slam before this week, has come quietly through the draw. She was yet to drop a set and got off to another dominant start against her opponent in the semifinals.
Petkovic was down three break points in the very first game and though she saved a couple, it was one too many and Halep converted eventually to get her match off to a bright start. Petkovic has gained plenty of empathy for her ride up the rankings – she has climbed from 177th last year to her current level of 27th through some consistent performances over the past year.
Her opponent has been even more impressive. The 22 year old Romanian was ranked 57th around this time last year. But has since put together a series of top notch efforts – quarters at the Australian Open, victory in Doha, semis at Indian Wells and finals in Madrid have ensconced her firmly inside the top five of tennis.
Playing with serene confidence, she dragged Petkovic side to side till she found the space to finish points, or forced her opponent into committing an error. Halep has an easy comforting rhythm to her game and she raced away to a 5-1 lead, having broken the German a second time in the fifth game. With less than 30 minutes on the clock, Halep had the set in the bag and the match under control.
The fourth seeded Romanian held with ease at the start of the second set even as an increasingly desperate Petkovic sought to discover an opening to let herself back into the contest. A lame second serve from Halep in the fourth game provided just that and Petkovic latched on to it in a flash to gain break points. When she converted the opportunity with a lashing forehand putaway, she gained a 3-1 lead in the second set.
Unfortunately for the German, it lasted just a while. As Halep, though far less consistent than the first set, willed herself to earn a break back and get even at 3-3. In the eighth game, Halep squandered two game points at 40-15 with some sloppy tennis. But she recovered quickly to keep the set even at 4-4. As the set reached a climax, there was palpable tension but both Halep and Petkovic kept it tight to force a tie-breaker.
Halep opened up a narrow gap and retained it despite a game effort from Petkovic. At 5-4, the ball was on her racket and Halep had two chances to end the match. The Romanian did just that – after gaining a match point with a big serve, she sent another down the middle wide off Petkovic’s backhand to extract a feeble response. Simona rushed to the net and put away a forehand winner to close out the match.