Romanian tennis star Simona Halep, number 4 in the WTA ranking of the best women’s tennis players in the world, reached the semifinals of the French Open for the second time in her career after a spectacular comeback against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, this season’s best player.

Halep lost the first set 3-6 and was down 1-5 in the second set but she denied Svitolina a match point and made a fantastic recovery. She won the second set 7-6 and crushed the Ukrainian 6-0 in the decisive set.

Simona Halep will thus play for her second final at Roland Garros. She also reached the final in 2014, when she lost to Maria Sharapova.

Halep will have a tough opponent to beat in the semifinals, Czech Karolina Pliskova, the current number 3 in the WTA ranking. The Romanian leads 4 to 1 in direct matches, but Pliskova has had a good run this year.

In the other semifinal, Swiss Timea Bacinszky will play against 19-year old Latvian Jeļena Ostapenko, who managed to beat Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter finals.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo, video source: Roland-Garros on Facebook)