World No. 2 Karolina Pliskova moved into the semifinals with a roller-coaster 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 win over reigning Wimbledon champ No. 5 Simona Halep in their purple-group round robin clash at the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen on Friday.
Halep had the edge in the head to head going into the match, with 7 wins out of 11 matches since 2015. The vast majority of Halep’s wins had come in straight sets, but she did not have that luxury in Friday’s meeting.
The first set was a summary execution dealt out by the Czech. Pliskova held her opening service to 15 with solid shooting from the baseline, and went on to break Halep’s opening service with the same approach.
The Romanian then held her next service game to love before converting two double break points on the way to handing Halep a bagel first set in just 21 minutes. The Czech had 11 winners to 3 unforced errors in the opener, while Halep’s stats were nearly inverted: 3 winners to 10 unforced.
Halep got on the board off the Czech’s first service in the second with a hold to 15, and then turned the tables with an all-court push that upset the aggressive baseline tactics that had worked so well for Pliskova in the opener.
Pliskova began to slip up from there, getting 12 unforced errors on the way to surrendering a 5-2 lead and letting the Romanian serve for the set and force a decider.
The two traded breaks to go 2-all in the second set, with both players putting up a good fight for each point with solid returning from the baseline from the Czech.
Pliskova then turned up the heat on return with solid forehands down the line, getting another break to go up 4-2. Although Halep would respond with a break of her own, she was unable to overcome the deficit. Pliskova got a decisive break back on a netcord winner to seal the decider in just under 50 minutes.
