Simona Halep will play in her third consecutive year-end championships after defeating Madison Keys 6-4, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the Wuhan Open.
The world No.5 was required to reach the semifinals at this week’s Chinese Premier event in order to qualify for the multi-million dollar end of year tournament in Singapore. Only the eight highest scoring women will play in the tournament.
Facing Keys, a player that Halep had beaten on two previous occasions this year, the Romanian was broken in her first two service games before fighting back to dictate the rest of the match. Thursday’s encounter wasn’t a flawless display from Halep, who produced a win-error ratio of 10-15. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old was able to boss her inconsistent opponent around the court, who produced 24 unforced errors herself.
“It was a great match for me, I played really well. I knew that she (Keys) was going to be very tough because she’s strong and serves really well.” Halep said during her on court interview.
“I was moving fantastic and enjoying my time on the court.”
Aware of the significance of her latest win in Wuhan, Halep will be hoping to for a better run in Singapore after a disappointing performance at the 2015 tournament. Last year she failed to progress beyond the group stages after suffering losses to Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska.
“I’m really happy that I did it. It’s amazing to play in Singapore for three years in a row. I hope this year that I can do better than last year and enjoy my time on the court.” She said.
Halep is the third player this year to secure her place in the final tournament after Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber. She will be bidding to become the first Romanian player in history to win the title at the event, which has a prize money pool of US£7,000,000.
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