It’s the 2018 French Open champion against the 2020 champion. Simona Halep and Iga Swiatek are both off to strong starts in 2022, and they share an interesting head-to-head, which includes two lopsided meetings at the Parisian Major. On Friday, they meet for the fourth time.
The other WTA singles semifinal features two of the top six seeds, as defending champion Paula Badosa faces Maria Sakkari, who is into her second consecutive WTA 1000 semifinal.
Also on Friday, the last two ATP singles quarterfinals will be decided. Andrey Rublev is on a 12-match win streak, but standing in his way is Grigor Dimitrov, who was a semifinalist here back in October. And American Taylor Fritz, who has won back-to-back matches in third-set tiebreaks, takes on Miomir Kecmanovic, who upset Matteo Berrettini in the last round.
Each day, this preview will analyze the two most intriguing matchups, while highlighting other notable matches on the schedule. Friday’s play gets underway at 12:00pm local time.
Andrey Rublev (7) vs. Grigor Dimitrov (33) – 12:00pm on Stadium 1
Rublev has not only won his last 12 matches, he’s won 10 straight sets, dating back to his title run in Dubai. Meanwhile, between his last semifinal in Indian Wells and this one, Dimitrov went a modest 6-6. But he’s performed well this fortnight, winning all six sets played, including against two seeds (Bublik, Isner). Andrey and Grigor are 2-2 lifetime, with all four matches taking place on hard courts. Though it’s worth noting they haven’t played since 2019, and Rublev has taken his game to another level since that time. While Dimitrov has only advanced this far at a Masters 1000 event four times over the past three years, Rublev did so four times last season alone. Andrey has developed into a formidable force on hard courts, and he’s the favorite to prevail on Friday.
Iga Swiatek (3) vs. Simona Halep (24) – Not Before 6:00pm on Stadium 1
Their first two meetings, in back-to-back years at Roland Garros, were anything but competitive, In 2019, Halep was victorious 6-1, 6-0 in a match which lasted only 45 minutes. A year later, Swiatek avenged that loss 6-1, 6-2 on her way to her maiden Major title. The rubber match took place at last year’s Australian Open, with Halep winning 6-4 in the third. Simona has rather quietly, yet efficiently, advanced to this semifinal. She’s won her last three sets by dropping only one game in each. On Wednesday, she required only 53 minutes to overcome Petra Martic. Swiatek was forced to come back from a set down in her first three matches this fortnight, but almost identically to Halep’s quarterfinal performance, Iga dominated Madison Keys in just 56 minutes. The key on Friday may be Halep’s superior consistency, as this slower surface should be able to enable her defense to draw errors out of her more aggressive opponent. I favor Simona to return to the final for the first time since she won this event in 2015.
Other Notable Matches on Friday:
Taylor Fritz (20) vs. Miomir Kecmanovic – Like Dimitrov, Fritz is vying for second consecutive semifinal at this event. This is Kecmanovic’s second quarterfinal in three appearances, easily making this his best Masters 1000 tournament to date. Both their previous meetings occurred on American hard courts (once at Challenger level), with Fritz taking both.
Paula Badosa (5) vs. Maria Sakkari (6) – Badosa has now claimed 10 straight matches in the desert, while Sakkari has won 10 of her last 12 overall. Their only previous meeting was in the round robin stage of November’s WTA Finals in Guadalajara, where Paula prevailed in straight sets.
Friday’s full Order of Play is here.
