The number one seed took out another Romanian to reach the semifinals.
Simona Halep is into the semifinals of the Transylvania Open in Cluj Napoca after beating the world number 105 and fellow Romanian Jaqueline Cristian 6-1, 6-1 in one hour and eight minutes.
“I think consistency is a key part of my game and my personality and I am trying to do that every week and I want to enjoy playing tennis which is the most important thing right now.”
The world number 18 hit seven winners, two aces while her opponent hit 46 unforced errors.
After holding serve in her opening service game Halep went on the offensive and managed to earn an early breakpoint to break the world number 105’s serve to take an early 1-0 lead.
At 3-0, the world number 18 had a chance to go up a double break but Cristian managed to save it and hold serve and the following game pushed back to try and get the break back but the 30-year-old saved all three break points she faced as she held serve.
In the very next game, the Constanta native had four chances to break and managed to go up a double break at the fourth time of asking to serve out the first set.
The first two games of the second set went on serve and once again it was the world number 18 with the first two breakpoints of the set and she got the early break once again for a 2-1 lead.
Again like the first set, she managed to turn that break into a double break after consolidating it, and at 5-1 with Cristian serving to stay in the match, Halep broke serve one more time to seal the win.
In her post-match press conference, Halep confirmed that her back was almost a nonissue during the match and that she felt better after getting treatment and recovering from the previous match.
“It was a little when I was hitting my backhand, I warmed up really well and I ignored the pain and focused on what I needed to do to play my game.”
Halep will next face Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals on Saturday after the Ukrainian dominated the Brit Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-1.
