TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – Perhaps it was the late start due to the rain delay or maybe it was being on the brink of a huge career milestone but both Andrea Petkovic and Simona Halep raced into their maiden major semifinal berth with relative ease. They both dispatched of seasoned veterans on tour who have had great success at these championships. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
Perhaps it was the late start due to the rain delay or maybe it was being on the brink of a huge career milestone but both Andrea Petkovic (28) and Simona Halep (4) raced into their maiden major semifinal berth with relative ease. They both dispatched of seasoned veterans on tour who have had great success at these championships. They also won with the same score line without any of the dramatics that highlighted the other two women’s quarterfinals. Petkovic took care of Sara Errani (10) the 2012 finalist here 6-2 6-2 and Halep dismissed Svetlana Kuznetsova (27) the 2009 champion 6-2 6-2.
Petkovic and Errani were first up on after the delay and immediately, the more experienced Italian broke the German immediately and held serve for a 2-0 lead. “I had a very good game plan from my coach. It didn’t work in the beginning…[S]o I was kind of getting a little worried.” Petkovic said after the match. However, she added the she believed in the plan and decided to stick with it and “So I was lucky that I started playing better and that I was putting more balls into play. And then also the game plan started working out better.” She was more than lucky as she reeled off 6 straight games to close out the set 6-2 in 27 minutes. Errani on the other hand looked listless and unable to show off her trademark defensive skills. She was pulled well out of her comfort zone and unable to get any momentum swinging her way.
The 2nd set began with the players trading breaks for four successive games to be even at 2-2. It was not until the 5th game that Petkovic finally held serve and never looked back. She continued with the game plan that worked so well for her in the 1st set. She attacked Errani’s serves relentlessly, continually pummeling it and returning them with interest. The Italian was left scrambling behind the baseline trying to get the heavy deep shots back into court. Petkovic would break Errani for the 7th consecutive time when the Italian sprayed the ball wide resulting in her losing the match. In just over an hour, Petkovic moved through to her first major semifinals 6-2 6-2. The German spoke about match point, “I saw the ball, and it was so slow. I just prayed to God that it went out, because I didn’t want to smash that ball…I was just praying that it went out….Please, please, please, please, please. When it went out I was super relieved and super happy.”
Errani spoke of the match “Well, I think she played a good match. The problem was not that. It was me. No power, no energy.” That was not the Italian’s only problem; she also had no serve. She held serve once during the eight times she serve. Despite getting 75% of her first serves in, she was only winning 39% of those points and 17% on second serve. It was easy pickings for Petkovic who on the other hand did not have great numbers but good enough to beat Errani. She got 91% of her serves in but only won 56% of the points on first serves and 50% on second serves. However, she was able to get 26 winners many of which came off the Errani serve. Petkovic’s achievement is the first time a German woman has made it to the semifinal at the French Open in near 15 years when Steffi Graf did so in 1999. Graf would later go on to win the title over Martina Hingis.
In the last women’s quarterfinals, Halep was facing a more formidable foe than Petkovic in the form of Kuznetsova. Kuznetsova knows that it takes to win here in Paris and so far this tournament, has shown herself looking very much like a former champion. However, the Russian came out flat against the Romanian who quickly took a 2-0 lead. Kuznetsova broke back and got to 2-2 but she was making far too many errors to be effective on court. She committed 23 in total for the match. Halep was thus able to break her opponent twice in the set and serve it out 6-2 after 33 minutes.
Kuznetsova left the court for a medical time out at the end of the set and returned with her one of her thighs heavily wrapped. She later confirmed that it was a hamstring injury. This hardly helped her cause as she was kept far behind the baseline trying to work her way into the court. She was no match for the precision hitting and footwork of Halep. “I was very aggressive. I played very fast…Is my style to play fast and to take the ball very early. She’s more defensive than me. She’s playing more far from the court. So my point was today my tactic was to play fast, to play very close to the ball, and just to open the angles.” Halep said of her game plan.
Like Errani, Kuznetsova found herself scrambling behind the baseline and forced to be far too defensive on a day that required them to be offensive-minded if they wanted to win. Halep worked her way into the set and raced to a 4-1 lead. Kuznetsova got one of the breaks back for 2-4 but Halep continued to pile on the pressure and broke back immediately to serve for the match 5-2. It looked for a moment that Halep would be unable to serve it out as she double faulted three times in the final game but she got herself together and continued to push her opponent around until finally Kuznetsova dumped another forehand into the net. Halep won 6-2 6-3 in 79 minutes.
Kuznetsova was broken six times in the match which was no surprise as she was only winning 43% of her first serve points and 35% on her second serve. Halep was significantly better in both areas as she won 57% on her first serve and 50% on her second serve. This would be Halep and Petkovic’s 4th meeting with Halep leading 2-1. “It will be a tough match, for sure. It’s a little pressure because it’s semifinal, but I feel good. I feel my game. I feel prepared for the next match. For sure I will try everything to win.” Halep said of the upcoming semifinals.
