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By Chris Oddo | Monday September 7, 2015

 
Simona Halep, US Open 2015

Simona Halep didn't have her A game on Monday, but her will to win took her over the finish line nonetheless.

Photo Source: Matthew Stockman/Getty

It was hot. And wicked. And cringe-worthy in more ways than one. But No. 2 seed Simona Halep was smiling pretty after her three-set victory over Sabine Lisicki on Day 8. Just another day on the mean streets of New York City.

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Halep’s 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-2 victory over 24th-seeded Sabine Lisicki reinforced the notion that the Romanian is in New York to win at all costs. She appeared down and out on several occasions physically over the course of this erratic yet tense two hour and 38-minute encounter, but emerged victorious, battling back from a set down and eventually proving fitter and faster than Lisicki when it mattered in the third and deciding set.

“Finally I am in the quarterfinals at the US Open,” Halep said after the match. “I’m really happy that I could do it. It was like a crazy match today.”

Halep appeared to tweak her left ankle during the early going of the opening stanza, but after she dropped the first-set tiebreaker she saw the trainer to have her left thigh taped. At that point it was unclear if Halep would finish the match, let alone win it, but Lisicki’s inability to find the court kept the door open for the Romanian.

The German finished with 72 unforced errors against 37 winners, and after she emerged from a 10-minute break after the second set, she was further hampered by cramping in her legs. Unable to move well enough, Lisicki resorted to drop shots and attempting to blast winners, but it was a fruitless strategy as Halep broke twice and didn’t face a break point down the stretch.

In total there were 17 breaks of serve over the course of the match, and Halep herself chipped in 33 unforced errors against only 18 winners, but the Romanian’s will to win kicked in and drove her to the finish line.

“I was fighting until the end,” she said. “I did everything I could to win the match.”


She added: “I’m tired, I can say, and today I have mixed again, so it’s pretty tough, this tournament, for me.”

Pennetta, Again

Flavia Pennetta defeated Sam Stosur for the seventh time in seven matches, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals for the sixth time in her last seven appearances.

The 26th seed has only reached the last eight at one other Slam (2014, Australia) and will move on to face either Petra Kvitova or Johanna Konta in the quarters.

With the success of Pennetta and her compatriot Roberta Vinci (advanced to QFs when Bouchard withdrew), an Italian woman has reached the quarterfinals at the US Open in every year since 2008.

 

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