By Chris Oddo | Thursday May 11, 2017
Two of the three seeded players remaining in the Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinals on the women’s side have moved through to the semis, with one more left to play the evening session. No.3-seeded Simona Halep trounced CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-1, 6-1, while No.14-seeded Kristina Mladenovic defeated Sorana Cirstea, 6-4, 6-4.
No.8-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and Eugenie Bouchard are set to meet this evening.
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Defending champion Halep is rounding into form in Madrid again. She saved all three break points she faced in her first career meeting with Vandeweghe to set up a semifinal with Anastasija Sevastova.
“I was a little bit nervous, to be honest, before the match, because she has a big serve,” Halep said. “It's always tough to play with someone who has a big serve.”
The Romanian handled Vandweghe admirably, breaking five times on nine opportunities and winning 12 of 21 second-serve points.
Halep has repeatedly stressed that she’s working on her on-court demeanor, which continues to pay dividends. She elaborated further on that in press today.
“In the last five weeks, I feel different,” she said. “It's much better. I keep more energy in this way. When I finish a match like yesterday, where it was really tough, I didn't feel tired. That makes me stronger and makes me to understand. It puts me in the way to understand that it's much better to stay relaxed, just calm, not talking and doing other stuff on court.”
Mladenovic reached her second Premier Mandatory semifinal of the season with her win over Cirstea. She also reached the semis at Indian Wells and now owns an impressive 26-8 record on the season and is 10-1 on clay.
“Sorana is a really great player,” she said. “She can really hit strong. It was just small details today. It was 6-4, 6-4 for me. I was just a little bit more consistent than her in everything, a little bit better, and holding serves when I really had to.”
Mladenovic will face either Eugenie Bouchard or No.8-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals.