WATCH | Australian Open: Simona Halep makes short work of Karolina Pliskova in QF
Top seed Simona Halep recovered from a slow start before racing away to a 6-3 6-2 victory over Czech sixth seed Karolina Pliskova in their Australian Open quarter-final on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Romanian world number one, still without a grand slam title, trailed 3-0 but battened down the hatches to reel off the next nine games on her way to a first Melbourne semi-final.
An increasingly deflated Pliskova eventually stopped the rot but with Halep offering precious little in the way of cheap points, the result soon became a formality.
“It’s really nice to be in the semis… For sure it wasn’t my best start, but I knew I had to restart which I did.”@Simona_Halep steams ahead to her first #AusOpen semifinal! pic.twitter.com/7gXSSQNdgl
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 24, 2018
Halep made only 10 unforced errors in the one hour, 11-minute contest on Rod Laver Arena and sealed victory with a punishing return to the baseline which the big-serving Pliskova could only slap into the net.
The Romanian advances to face 2016 champion Angelique Kerber in the semi-finals after the German crushed American Madison Keys earlier on Wednesday.
“It’s nice to be in the semis,” Halep, coached …read more
