Simona Halep’s brilliant season in North America continues as she ousted Sabine Lisicki 6-7, 7-5, 6-2. The Romanian has not performed in the last two grand slams of the season but when it comes to playing on this side of the Atlantic her transformation is astonishing: title at Indian Wells, semis in Miami, final in Toronto and final in Cincinnati.
Today it could have all come to an end in the fourth round however as Lisicki’s powerful ground strokes were punching holes through Halep’s defence and the German took the first set 8-6 in the tiebreak. The world number two was clearly in some sort of pain and requested a medical time out in the interval and received some heavy strapping on her left thigh.
The second set was the most up and down spell of tennis your likely to see all year. The first four games were all breaks of serve, and in the middle of it all, the Romanian requested the assistance of the on-court physio to re-apply the strapping on her thigh which was clearly hindering her mobility on court. At 2-2 Halep held the first service game of the entire set and then she went on to break in the following game. Lisicki broke back at 2-4 as Halep gingerly made her way to her chair. However it seemed that she was in more pain in between points than actually on court and she broke the German straight away after running down every single ball launched at her. The rollercoaster wasn’t over yet and Lisicki broke Halep’s serve at 3-5 and just about managed to hold in the following game. With the set even again, most people would have backed Lisicki to trudge over the finish line. But Halep took the following two games and after a wayward forehand from the German, the Romanian matched the encounter as both players sat down visibly drained both physically and mentally.
Thankfully, common sense intervened and there was a ten minute break as the heat rule came into play. The second set had taken a lot out of Lisicki though and at 1-2 she started cramping. The long exchanges from the back of the court weren’t helping the German and Halep got the first break of the set at 3-2. Lisicki was running on empty and a number errors started creeping into her game as she shanked many shots as a result of her troubles to move properly. She lost her final serve to love with a wide backhand which booked Simona Halep’s ticket for the quarter finals. Awaiting the Romanian is a very tough battle with Victoria Azarenka where a big factor will be how well Halep recovers on her day off.
