World No. 1 Simona Halep produced perhaps the finest performance of her career, annihilating former champion Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-4 in an hour and 32 minutes on Thursday. Halep’s defense was absolutely terrific, but her attack was admirable as well. And she answered all the questions about her mentality, showing her determination and firm resolve in the second set, when Muguruza was ahead for a brief period.
Both players looked a bit nervous when they started the proceedings on the court. However, the two were still going for their shots with Halep absolutely blasting the ball from the baseline. Her aggressive tactics immediately paid rich dividends as Muguruza slung down a double fault to lose her serve in the opening game.
The Spaniard earned three break back points in the next game, but was unable to convert as Halep was simply too solid, turning defense into offense quite beautifully on a number of occasions. A whipped backhand into the corner eventually gave the top seed a 2-0 lead.
Halep’s game is based around great movement and defense, but the two-time finalist was also hitting the ball so deep, giving Muguruza no time to breathe on the baseline. An intelligent ploy by Halep in which she was hitting heavy ground-strokes, making canny changes in the pace and creating clever angles, ultimately gave her a double break and a 3-0 lead.
Halep did not show any sign of weakness in the first set as she made it 5-0 after just 25 minutes of play on Court Philippe Chatrier. And even though the reigning Wimbledon champion eventually got on the board in the ensuing game, Halep went on to claim set No. 1 in 37 minutes.
Muguruza was looking around the court bewildered by what was happening out there. She couldn’t figure out a way to penetrate Halep’s defense, whose wall-like play gave her multiple opportunities to break Muguruza’s serve in almost each game.
The second set began in the same fashion as Halep won a 15 shot rally and followed it up with a vicious forehand winner before coasting to a love hold. Better serving and solid hitting with the forehand helped Muguruza to level the scores at 1-1. Muguruza prowled around the baseline, producing three big and clean hits to eventually break down Halep’s defense for a 3-1 lead.
However, the 2016 champion couldn’t maintain her lead for long, as a couple of sloppy forehands in the eighth game gave Halep two chances to break back. And she took the first one as an erratic Muguruza went wide with the backhand, thus equalizing the scores at 4 games all.
The turning point of the match though came in the next game when Halep had her backs to the wall. With Muguruza hitting the ball ferociously, Halep came extremely close to losing her serve as her opponent earned three break points. But Halep showed nerves of steel as she saved the first by striking the ball phenomenally deep inside the baseline, the second with a sensational running forehand winner and the third with some assistance from the gods as Muguruza completely missed a low ball which did not bounce.
Two thudding forehands earned Halep three match points at 0-40. With pressure telling on Muguruza as she faced an imminent exit, she battered a backhand long, sending Halep into the French Open final for the third time in her career.
