Monday 26 January 2015

Halep stops Wickmayer run

Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer is a former top 15 player who this year equalled her best Aus Open performance by reaching the fourth round.  Anything extra would mean a huge upset because third seed Simona Halep is one of the favourites to take out the title, and is currently on an eight match winning streak in 2015.

The Belgian served first and survived a break point, eventually winning the game on the back of some good tennis, after a fairly average offering in the early points.  Halep's turn at the line was less dramatic and she took her form into the third game where the break occurred, and the Romanian led 2-1.

The break was consolidated with a love game including a forehand winner to start and an ace to finish.
An insurance break arrived after Wickmayer squandered 40-0, double faulting to increase Halep's advantage to 4-1.

Following an ace to give 40-15 Halep double faulted and two forehand winners from Wickmayer secured the first break of the Halep serve for the night and Yanina was back in the set.  At 4-3 Halep pushed to within one game of the set with some attacking shots to the Wickmayer backhand causing errors.

Serving to stay afloat Wickmayer enjoyed 40-15 until it became deuce where it was no fun, and much less when Halep took the advantage on two occasions.  Eventually serve was held with a backhand winner from Yanina. 5-4 Halep.

Simona was in the mood for second set action so she dismissed Wickmayer quickly racing to 40-0 with a forehand winner and two aces.  She only needed one set point and so led 6-4.

Set two began similarly to the first with Wickmayer dropping serve in the third game - she broke straight back this time though and games were 2-2.

Simona Halep won the remaining games with the application of her range of skills proving overwhelming for Wickmayer who just could not win enough points off her own first serve. 
The Halep backhand stretch down the line winner in the seventh game to set up break point was memorable.

The third seed won comfortably 6-4 6-2 and her quarter final opposition would come in the form of Ekaterina Makarova, one of two Russians in the final eight.

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