Romanian tennis players Simona Halep battled back from a set down to beat Andrea Petkovic on Thursday night and reach the quarterfinals of the Premier 5-level Western & Southern Open, wtatennis.com reports.
For a while it looked like the No.15-seeded Petkovic would pull off the upset – she was just a few games away leading 6-4, 3-2. But the No.3-seeded Halep was just too solid from there, tightening the screws on her unforced errors and eventually prevailing over the hard-hitting German, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The numbers told the story: Petkovic finished with a -17 differential of winners to unforced errors, 34 to 51, while Halep finished with a much tidier -1 differential of winners to unforced errors, 31 to 32.
“It was very difficult. I mean, I don’t know how I won. I’m very tired now!” Halep said. “But I really wanted to win this match. I was fighting until the end. I’m glad I could stay focused to the end. Maybe I spoke to myself too much during the match, but tomorrow I’ll be more quiet!”
Halep is now two wins from taking World No.2 from Maria Sharapova, which would not only be a return to her career-high, it has major implications, literally – next week’s rankings determine the seeds for the US Open, and a No.2 seed would mean Halep wouldn’t have to face Serena Williams until the final.
Up next for Halep is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who dropped the first set, 6-1, but then went up 3-0 in the second set when Victoria Azarenka had to retire from their match due to a left thigh injury.
On Wednesday Halep advanced to the round of last 16 of the WTA women’s singles event of the USD 2,400,490 Western and Southern Open 2015 tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio, as she defeated France’s Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
Earlier in the day a quarterfinal blockbuster was set after No.1 seed Serena Williams cruised past Karin Knapp, 6-0, 6-2 (read more here) and No.6 seed Ana Ivanovic rallied from a first set blowout and survived a 34-point game in the second set to beat Sloane Stephens, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 (read more here).
Rounding out the winners were No.7 seed Lucie Safarova, who got past Belinda Bencic when she had to retire due to a injury after a set (read more here), No.14 seed Elina Svitolina, who beat fellow WTA Rising Star Caroline Garcia, 6-0, 6-3, Jelena Jankovic, who came from 5-2 down in the third – and saved a match point – to edge No.8 seed Karolina Pliskova, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, and Slovak qualifier Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who rallied from 3-0 down in the third to beat Varvara Lepchenko, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
In the doubles event, the pair Horia Tecau/Jean Julien Rojer (Romania/Netherlands), 3rd seeded, has qualified also to the quarter-finals in Cincinnati after defeating 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 Alexander Peya (Austria)/Bruno Soares (Brasil).
Simona Halep is only 23 years old, while the current No.2 is 28 years old and the current No.1 even 33 years old…time is on her side. In a few years Halep will be No.1. Go, Simona !