Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber emerged victorious in a wild quarterfinal battle at Wimbledon with fifth seed Simona Halep, topping the Romanian 7-5, 7-6(2) in a match that featured more breaks of serve than holds. Thirteen breaks were exchanged by the two crafty baseliners before the fourth seed finally won the key points to advance to the semifinals.
Battle of breaks goes to Kerber
Kerber got off to a brilliant start, winning the first points of the match to lead 1-0, 0-40. Though Halep would save the first break point with her first point of the match, he the Romanian could not handle a tight backhand from Kerber and the German broke for and immediate 2-0 lead. The momentum went away quickly, as Halep would break back to love in the following game. The craziness continued as a series of wild rallies resulted in another break for Kerber when Halep missed a reflex passing shot wide.
The German again failed to consolidate, with Halep breaking back to love once again. The level of shot making from both women continued to rise as they exchanged another pair of breaks. Halep had a golden opportunity to stop the run of breaks when she saved a pair from 0-40 down before dumping an easy forehand to give the break away. Kerber had a chance to serve out the set at 5-3, but was unable to buck the trend, being broken once again.
After eight consecutive breaks of serve, Halep finally held to level the set at 5-5. Kerber would then hold to put the pressure back on the Romanian. The fifth seed reverted back to the early trends of the match, falling behind break point and double faulting to give away the opening set.
Kerber needs to tiebreak to reach semifinals
The pattern of breaks nearly picked up again immediately in the second set, with Kerber needing to save a break point before holding to start the set. After the first five games went with serve, it was Kerber who made the first move, racing ahead triple break point and converting to take the lead in the set. However, just like the first set, the lead would not last as Halep would break back immediately to put the set back on serve.
A crazy rally gave Kerber double break point in the following game and Halep would dump a shot into the net to give the break to the German, the third break in a row. Serving for the match, Kerber blinked as Halep would break her back once again. After back to back holds, Halep once again found herself serving at 5-6 to try to stay alive. Unlike the first set, she made no mistake, holding to force a tiebreak.
In the breaker, the Romanian scored a minibreak on the opening point with a forehand volley, but a massive forehand from Kerber on the next point but the tiebreak back on serve. An error then gave the minibreak lead to the German. More errors began to pour off of Halep’s racquet and she would lose five points in a row to trail 5-1 before stopping the run. A wacky net cord drew an awkwardly-struck error from Halep to give Kerber four match points. The Romanian drove a backhand wide on the first to give the match to the Australian Open champion.
By the numbers
Not surprisingly, both women had far better return numbers than service numbers. Kerber was marginally better on serve, winning 57 percent of her first serve points and 42 percent of her second serves, while Halep won 50 percent of her first serve and 36 percent of her second serves. Both women had 21 unforced errors, but Kerber did better countering them out, hitting 23 winners to Halep’s 18.
Kerber will take on five-time champion Venus Williams in the semifinals.