Wimbledon 2022: why not Simona Halep again?
Simona Halep (WTA No. 18) played her way quietly but dominantly into the Wimbledon quarter-finals. After her brilliant performance against Paula Badosa one thing is clear: Halep is to be expected as a title contender!
by Florian Goosmann from Wimbledon
last edit:
Jul 05, 2022, 10:38 am
Simona Halep floats over the grass again. Left, right, forward, back, and she's playing Simona Halep tennis again. Absorbs the tempo when something comes from the opposite side, she changes the direction of the balls as she pleases. And then when she's taken the offensive, she spreads, left, right, left, right... until the point is through.
Paula Badosa demoralized her in the round of 16, 6:2, 6:1 after an hour, even if Badosa's punches sounded much harder - but also ended up out of bounds much more often.
Halep is playing Wimbledon 2019 tennis again: At that time she had what was perhaps the best match of her career in the final against Serena Williams, for the quite surprising Wimbledon title, where she was actually put in the clay court drawer.
But the lawn: "It's not an easy surface," she explained on Monday, "it has to click, you have to get used to it." Why does she like him so much? "Because he's fast, I think," said Halep. "I can feel it. Feel stable. My legs are pretty strong for the surface." And when she continued to philosophize, she also said: "It's inside me."
SkyWimbledon2022Article
Halep's secret to success: hard work
Halep had great doubts after several months of injury-related time-out in 2021, now she is full of self-confidence again. The not-so-secret secret: "I work hard, every day," she explained, "and I feel like if I do that, I'll get better."
A look at their last results confirm exactly that: In Birmingham and Bad Homburg, Halep had made it to the semifinals and only lost 22 games in their four Wimbedon matches. In the quarter-finals it's now against Amanda Anisimova, against whom she recently won 6-2, 6-1 in Bad Homburg.
Self-confidence to and fro, Halep has never seduced big words. It will be a different match than the one in Bad Homburg, "I expect a difficult game".
But of course she is ready.
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