TENNIS WIMBLEDON 2014 – Third time is the charm for Eugenie Bouchard as she finally wins her 3rd major semifinal match to get to her 1st major final. She beat Simona Halep in straight sets 7-6 6-2 to face Petra Kvitova in the final of the 2014 Wimbledon. Cordell Hackshaw
Results, Order of Play, Draws and Interviews from The Championships
Both Simona Halep (3) and Eugenie Bouchard (13) have the best record in majors this year on the women’s tour at 15-2. These two youngsters have done better at the majors than Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska and Maria Sharapova as neither Halep nor Bouchard has lost before the quarterfinal stage. Now today, they were facing each other for a place in their first Wimbledon final and distinguish herself solely as the best at majors. Although Halep has made a major final recently at the French Open, it was Bouchard who showed herself more adept to this major pressure, handling all the distractions of the match as she took it 7-65 6-2. “I’m happy to get to my first Grand Slam final. It’s very exciting. It’s what I’ve worked so long … I’m just proud of myself for today’s effort,” Bouchard said.
Bouchard held serve to open the match and Halep responded by winning her first service game. The Romanian went on to break Bouchard when the Canadian’s forehand went long. Halep attempted to consolidate the break to edge ahead 3-1 but Bouchard broke her immediately to level it 2-2. In her attempt to chase down one of Bouchard’s shots, Halep appeared to have turned her ankle and had to be treated by the trainer. She played on with a taped ankle. Both players were making valiant attempts to break the other. Several times, Halep would get a 0-30 lead but could go no further as Bouchard produced some big time serving and got herself out of trouble. Bouchard for her part got break points in the 8th game which if converted would have had her serving for the set 5-4 but Halep too produced the big serves to stay even.
The tiebreaker would be the decider. In the opening points for the tiebreaker, neither player won points on their serve. Up 3-2, Halep about to serve, a spectator fell ill presumably from heat exhaustion and this delayed play for 5 minutes. Upon resumption of play, Halep won her first service point on serve for 4-2. She would be deflated from here on end. Bouchard came up with the necessary goods to win the next 5/6 points. She was now had a set lead 7-65.
Like the first women’s semifinal, the winner of the 1st set took complete charge of the 2nd set and the loser, seemingly capitulated. After 1-1, Halep seemed to have lost her way in the match. She looked passive throughout. She gave up on shots and began making careless errors and double faults at very inopportune times including on break point. “[I]n second set I lost my energy and I couldn’t believe anymore that I can finish the match in the right way for me,” Halep said after the match. Bouchard was soon up 5-1 and she was definitely swinging confidently. The Canadian had three match points on Halep’s serve but failed to convert them. It seemed as though the nerves were getting to her. Serving for the match 5-2, Bouchard would need three more match points in order to finally close out the match 7-6 6-2.
It was a bad day for Halep it seems. Each time she had the momentum, something came up in the match. She later spoke of these instances; the injury, “I felt a big pain in the moment, but then was better with the tape. But still I couldn’t push anymore in my leg. My first serve was really bad after that … [I]t was difficult to continue with another injury.” As for the distraction in the breaker, she mentioned that she lost her concentration at this time and eventually the set. However, Bouchard stayed focus throughout and was definitely the better player of the day. She won 74% of her 1st serve points compared to Halep who was only winning 54%. Despite them both making 23 errors in the match, Bouchard had 20 winners as opposed to Halep with 13. As for her match up against Petra Kvitova in Saturday’s final, Bouchard had this to say, “I think it will be my toughest match yet. I’m looking forward to the challenge … [S]he obviously likes the grass and has some good weapons, so I will be ready for those. I’ll try to impose my own weapons and game against her. I think we’ll both be going at it, which will make for a very good, you know, match.”
