Simona Halep has eased to her fourth consecutive victory over Madison Keys this season with a 6-2, 6-4, win at the end-of-year WTA Finals in Singapore.
Playing in the first match of this year’s $7 million event, the 2014 runner-up experience little difficulty against a lacklustre keys, who produced a staggering 41 unforced errors in the match. Halep’s game plan of not going after the shots and instead wait for her more inexperienced rival to make a mistake was one that proved highly successful.
“Your job is not to hit winners. She’s giving you all the power you want. No need to panic. Make her take big risks.” Halep’s coach Darren Cahill said to her during the opening set.
In what was a dream start for the third seed, Halep raced out to 4-1 after breaking an erratic keys two consecutive times. Keys, who is making her WTA Finals debut, struggled to control the consistency of her powerful shots as her high unforced count of 18 Proved fatal to her first set chances. Strolling to a game away from the opening set, Halep secured the 6-2 lead after 27 minutes with the help of a serve out wide that was unsuccessfully returned by her opponent.
In just 27 minutes, Halep takes the opening set 6-2 over Keys. #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/Qi6EJQBfzZ
— WTA (@WTA) 23 October 2016
The one-sided Halep show eroded at the start of the second set with the Romanian facing stiffer resistance from a more measured Keys. Both players had chances to break in the first two games, but neither was able to secure the breakthrough. Despite the promising patch of play from both players, it was once again an implosion in Keys’ shot-making skills the enable Halep to regain a stronghold in the match. This time it was a forehand crashing into the net that moved Halep to a set and a break up.
Keys, who is the youngest player in the draw, did occasionally produced glimmers of the play that has taken her to a WTA title and two Premier finals this season. This was best illustrated towards the business end of the second set where a sudden burst of confidence enabled her to retrieve the break and level 4-4. The encouraging display from the 21-year-old failed to materialise as Halep responded immediately with some of her best defensive play.
A sensational backhand pass from @Simona_Halep to now serve for the match! #WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/Na7q8vXvfF
— WTA (@WTA) 23 October 2016
Easing towards the win, Halep had two match points at 40-15, but failed to convert due to some rather passive play. Nevertheless, it was third lucky after a serve down the line was unsuccessfully returned from Keys.
Regardless of the seemingly straightforward win, Halep admitted that the task of trying to control Keys’ firepower is one that she found challenging.
“She is very strong, she serves very well and hits the ball at like 150 kmp/h.” Said Halep. “So it’s tough to play the same game, so I just had to adjust to it and be strong with my legs to make her move.”
Now leading the Red Group in the round robin competition, Halep will play Angelique Kerber and Dominika Cibulkova later this week. The top two players in each group will progress to the semifinals.
