Simona Halep battled her way past Maria Sharapova yesterday ( see Saturday notes) to win in three sets in a match where 58.43% of points were won by the returner and which featured 19 breaks of serve ! That is far more than both players combined had been broken previously at these Championships and Sharapova had already played 11 other sets, including three, three set matches. Returning fantastically, or serving poorly (?), bit of both. It was in stark contrast to Elina Svitolina's semi with Anett Kontaveit, which the Ukranian won in double quick time with minimum fuss, taking 4 of her 5 break points and saving all but one of the just four she allowed her opponent, winning 73% of second serves.

 

However, the two clay court matches between Halep and Svitolina have gone the distance, one here in the final 12 months ago and the second a couple of weeks later in the last eight at Roland Garros, they featured 12 and 10 breaks, 57 BR's total , so had far more in common with Masha -Halep yesterday and I am expecting more of the same , with the pair evenly matched on the surface , both hungry for the win and likely to struggle to hold serve. The final last year, turned around on an ankle injury for Halep, but it was still a similar match in Paris and Svitolina warned the Romanian yesterday that " I hit hard, I'm physically strong, serve better than last year and am a much more complete player" , so, she is not lacking in confidence ! Everything she said is true, but she still has a lot of further improvement and as one of the UK commentators said this week, "her game is so good, but it is easy to see areas of every facet where she could improve", which would be a little scary for everyone else if she does. Heard that Svitolina has just bought a house about 3km from Griffin Park, Brentford's home, so we know she is also a very clever woman off court too ! Three sets .