Halep Hurries Into Last 16

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

LONDON, Great Britain – No.5 seed Simona Halep sealed her passage into the final 16 at Wimbledon with a commanding straight sets victory over the No.26 seed Kiki Bertens, advancing 6-4, 6-3 under the roof of Centre Court on Saturday.

Halep grabbed an early spot into the fourth round at a Wimbledon still plagued with rain delays, which have left even some second round matches still up in the air and forced the almost-unprecedented choice to schedule play on Middle Sunday.

The Romanian has stayed cool throughout the bad weather, though, and has yet to drop a set at the All-England Club. Bertens, her opponent, came into the matchup having won the last 12 of 13 matches – including a run to the French Open semifinals – and amassing a lot of confidence along the way.

The heavier conditions under the roof seemed to favor the Dutchwoman, and she opened the match with a break. Halep quickly restored parity in the next game,

Bertens found herself having to hit one extra ball more often than she wanted to as the diminutive Halep covered the court line to line. Halep dug up a forehand that landed behind her to a wrong-footed Bertens who could do little more than hack at it as she was broken once again for 4-2.

The No.5 seed finally took the first set as Bertens’ first serves seem to abandon her and Halep unleashed some of her biggest forehands of the match.

After the five breaks of serve in the first set, the second went much more smoothly for the World No.5 as she broke once on Bertens’ opening service game to build up an assertive 3-0 lead.

Bertens held her nerve to force the No.5 seed to keep herself in it and serve it out at 5-3 and even held a break point after a HawkEye challenge went her way, but a pair of commanding points won on Halep’s forehand dashed Bertens’ hopes of forcing a decider.

The Romanian will get a day’s rest tomorrow before she’s set to face the winner between Alizé Cornet and Madison Keys.

More to come…

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