Former winner Halep continues to impress and makes semifinals at Wimbledon

Simona Halep has reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon for the third time. The 2019 champion defeated Amanda Anisimova on Center Court by clear numbers (6-2, 6-4) and is still without a set loss.

Halep has been coached since the spring by Patrick Mouratoglou, who was the trainer of Serena Williams until last year, and that collaboration is catching on. “He lit the fire in me again,” said the 30-year-old Romanian. In 2021 Halep still wanted to say goodbye to tennis due to persistent injuries.

Now the former number one in the world is back on the track as a fighter. Halep was already too strong for Anisimova at the grass tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany last month, and was also by far the better player.

Halep dictated the game and had an appropriate response to almost everything the American did. Anisimova went to force and produced one drop after another (28 unnecessary errors against 6 for Halep).

Anisimova came back from 1-5 to 4-5 in the second set and also had three break chances in the final game at 0-40, but Halep prevented an American comeback partly thanks to a number of good services.

“I’m playing my best tennis in a long time. How big is my self-confidence at the moment? It’s going well”, Halep did not want to sound too euphoric afterwards.

Halep will face Jelena Rybakina in the semifinals on Thursday, who beat Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Rybakina is the first tennis player from Kazakhstan to make it to the last four at a Grand Slam tournament.

The other semifinal is between the Tunisian Ons Jabeur and Tatjana Maria. The unseeded German is the big surprise in the women’s tournament.