Romanian tennis star Simona Halep, the current number one in the WTA ranking of the best women’s tennis players in the world, qualified to the Australian Open’s semifinals for the first time in her career.

Halep only needed to sets to beat Czech Karolina Pliskova in the quarter finals, 6-3, 6-2. She lost the first three games of the match but then recovered and managed to win 12 of the next 14 games.

In the semifinals, she will play against Germany’s Angelique Kerber, a former WTA number one and Australian Open winner in 2016.

Simona Halep’s road to the Australian Open semifinals hasn’t been an easy one. She sprained her ankle in her first-round match against Australian Destanee Aiava, but managed to beat her (7-6, 6-1). She managed to recover just enough to beat former Canadian rising star Eugenie Bouchard in the second round (6-2, 6-2), and then had a marathon match against American Lauren Davis, which she won after almost four hours (4-6, 6-4, 15-13).

Despite the fatigue, she continued to play good tennis and got past Japan’s Naomi Osaka in the fourth round (6-3, 6-2).

editor@romania-insider.com