Romanian tennis player Simona Halep soared into the semifinals of the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament on Wednesday, after defeating American Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 6-4.
Halep (30, World No. 18), seeded 16th, prevailed in 63 minutes and will play for the third time in the All England Club semifinals, after 2014 and 2019.
The 2019 Wimbledon champion, who did not participate in the tournament in 2021 because of an injury (the 2020 edition was canceled), thus reached 12 consecutive victories at the grass court Grand Slam.
Anisimova (20 years old, World No. 25) led in each set 1-0, but then Halep took control of the game and won. In the first act, she managed five consecutive games, winning 6-2. Halep also had a 5-1 lead in the second set, but the American threateningly approached to 5-4, having three game chances of 5-5. Simona came back from 0-40 in the last game, finally managing to settle the score (5-4).
Halep had 3 aces, each player made a double mistake, the Romanian being superior with the second service, but also in the percentage of break points, saving six of the 7 created by Anisimova.
Anisimova had more direct winning balls, 13-10, but made many unforced errors (27-6).
The Romanian is now leading 3-1 in the direct matches against Anisimova, whom she recently overpowered in Bad Homburg, on grass court 6-2, 6-1, in the quarterfinals. The American won their first duel, in 2019, in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, 6-2, 6-4, and Halep got her revenge a year later, in the third round of the French Open, 6-0, 6-1.
Simona Halep has secured a cheque worth 535,000 pounds, and in the penultimate act she will face the winner between Kazakh Elena Rybakina and Australian Ajla Tomljanovic.
AGERPRES.