Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart

Women’s Semi-finals: [CR3] Simona Halep (ROU) vs. [CR5] Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)

The first set was highly competitive; they both battled for every point, neither player willing to lose serve.  It seemed destined to head to a tiebreaker and then suddenly Halep misfired on serve and Wozniacki won the first set.

Halep is a fiery competitor and when she is fully engaged in a match, she will show that determination. Not surprisingly, she elevated her game in the second set and quickly went up two breaks; unfortunately, Wozniacki got a tad complacent and fell into her sometimes passive style of play. Not the thing to do against someone as creative as Halep, who also can attack her groundstrokes and punish the ball. Although Wozniacki fought back, it required too much energy and she lost the second set.

When Wozniacki struggles with belief, she forgets that she can be aggressive and fails to attack the ball. She sometimes gets too comfortable relying on her athleticism and that allows her opponent to dictate play.  Perhaps she recognized her mistake after losing the second set and played with more conviction in the third.  She was rewarded for her effort with the 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 victory.