Wuhan Open, China

Women’s Semifinal: [5] Simona Halep (ROU) vs. [16] Petra Kvitova (CZE)

Despite beating Kvitova in all three previous encounters, Halep had to battle very hard in two of the three matches to beat her.  Thus, Kvitova must have thought that she could beat Halep if only she can just make one or two small adjustments in her game plan.  What would it take to defeat Halep for the first time? Halep moves incredibly well, when she is mentally engaged she is a force to be reckoned with; however, as her emotional and mental state deteriorates, so does her game and she is very prone to emotional volatility. Kvitova also can be emotionally volatile and when she starts to makes errors, it almost appears as if she completely lose the ability to stop and turn things around; thus, her first goal today was to remain calm.

Frankly, she has impressed me this week, especially her performance in the match against Angelique Kerber.  We know she has the power; however, we also know she can lose her rhythm when she gets emotionally negative.  Yet, there is something in her demeanor this week, a calmness that has allowed her to stay positive, balance the power and maintain the consistency on her ground strokes. There was not much Halep could do in this match, she was simply overpowered by the weight of shots coming off Kvitova’s racquet. She found the key to getting her first victory over the Romanian and won the match 6-1, 6-2. She plays Dominika Cibulkova in the final and looks to win her first title of the season and her second Wuhan Open title.

SOURCE OF IMAGES USED: Creative Commons