By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Simona Halep roared through an 11-game run rolling into her second Australian Open semifinal with a a 6-1, 6-1 sweep of Anett Kontaveit.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Tennis is a game of motion. Simona Halep delivered dynamic drive roaring into the Australian Open semifinals.
Covering the court as thoroughly as Google Earth, Halep roared through an 11-game run rolling into her second Australian Open semifinal with a a 6-1, 6-1 sweep of Anett Kontaveit.
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Solidifying her status as a top title contender, Halep is the only woman yet to drop a set in the tournament.
The Wimbledon winner played near-flawless tennis firing her fifth ace to close a 53-minute thrashing that was never in doubt. Halep converted five of 11 break points putting Kontaveit in crisis on nearly every service game.
"Perfection doesn't exist, but I'm very happy with the way I played," Halep said. "I felt great on court. I was moving great. I felt the ball, like, really, really good. It was a great match."
The fourth-seeded Romanian will face former No. 1 Garbine Muguruza in tomorrow's semifinals. Muguruza defeated 30th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3.
"I think it's a tough match," Muguruza said. "I think that no matter when you play top five, it's always deep in a tournament. It's a semifinal, so of course I'm expecting a big player. Yeah, excited to play another battle against her."
There is a time and place for everything.
And today's opening quarterfinal on Rod Laver Arena was not the time or place for Kontaveit to make her major quarterfinal debut.
Dominating from start to finish, Halep flew through 11 consecutive games opening up a 6-1, 5-0 lead before Kontaveit held to avoid a bagel set.
The two-time Grand Slam champion's superior speed around the court and her ball control skills effectively shrunk the space available to the 28th-seeded Kontaveit. After the Estonian held to open the match, Halep broke serve five times in a row igniting her 11-game run.
Spreading the court beautifully, Halep commanded the center of the court.
Facing break point in the sixth game, Halep hammered a forehand winner down the line to deny it before bolting her third ace for 5-1.
The serve set the tone for a lopsided win.
"The serve, it's been very important here during this tournament," Halep said. "I feel confident when I serve. I'm not scared anymore. But, you know, is just a working thing. I work hard on that. Finally I got the feeling of it. Let's hope for tomorrow again."
Running around her backhand, the Romanian ripped a clean forehand winner down the line sealing the 29-minute opening set on a six-game run.
The 2018 runner-up raced through 12 of the first 18 points snatching a 3-0 lead to start the second set.
A shell-shocked Kontaveit held at love to avoid the second-set bagel.
On this day, Halep was untouchable. She slashed her fifth ace to cap a comprehensive 53-minute blow-out in style.
Halep will return to world No. 2 regardless of the semifinal result, and she's aiming for more.
"Sometimes I felt exhausted, I have to admit. It's like the pressure of being good every week I think is the most important thing, is the most difficult thing to do," Halep said. "But after two, three years, you get used to it. You just take every week as a challenge to see how much you can go ahead.
"Now I'm not feeling any more pressure. It's just a bonus when it comes. I'm trying just to be as much as possible there. But the main goal, let's say, is not the ranking anymore for me. The titles and the big matches."