Simona Halep will take on Garbine Muguruza in a mouth-watering semi-final clash at French Open 2018 after fighting back to beat Angelique Kerber 6-7(2) 6-3 6-2.
The Romanian, 26, is bidding to win her first Grand Slam at Roland Garros after reaching the final of the event in 2014 and 2017.
Kerber made a much better start to the match than Halep. She broke in the opening game and outlasted the Romanian in a lengthy third game to break again.
Halep fought back superbly. She held to love and then earned her first break of the match to reduce the deficit to 4-2.
The Romanian was forced to hold off two break points in game seven and then Kerber had the chance to serve for the set at 5-4.
However, Halep did not panic. She put pressure on the German’s serve throughout the game and eventually earned the break she needed to level the score.
Extraordinarily, both players then earned another break apiece as momentum swung one way and then the other.
Halep was awful in the resulting tie-break. She made a series of errors to enable Kerber to take it easily 7-2.
Composed Halep turns the match around
Once again, the Romanian remained unaffected by the situation. She seemed to take confidence from her first-set fightback as she broke Kerber in the first game of the second set.
Halep served superbly throughout the set. She won 75% of points behind and only faced one break point.
This enabled her to open up a 3-1 lead, which she almost extended by breaking again in game five.
The German held firm on that occasion, but Halep eventually broke through her defences in game nine to clinch the set.
In the decider, Halep took Kerber’s second serve apart. She won 79% of points against it and broke the German in the second, fourth and eighth games to win the set 6-2 and put the finishing touches a highly impressive win.
