Halep comeback snaps Svitolina streak

No.1 seed Simona Halep snapped a string of three defeats to No.4 seed Elina Svitolina to make her second Qatar Total Open final with a brilliant comeback win, saving three points to go 1-5 down in the deciding set and emerging on top 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and seven minutes.

Coming into today’s match, the Ukrainian had led their head-to-head 4-3 – including four of their five encounters since 2014. Halep had been forced to come back from 3-6, 1-5 down and save a match point in her only win during that period, in the 2017 Roland Garros quarterfinals, and since then had won just 13 games and no sets in their following three encounters.

After her quarterfinal win over Julia Goerges yesterday, the 2014 champion had rued “giving up” in some of those matches – and, having looked forward to a chance today to set that right, did so in every sense. Trailing 1-4 in the third set, Halep explained that nothing much had been going through her head except “that I don’t want to give up” – and afterwards, she said she had proved a point to herself.

“I’m happy because I didn’t give up… The two finals that I played against her in Rome I gave up and I was not ready to fight,” Halep explained. “Now I change that, and it makes me happier, because I showed myself that I’m able to do that.”

Read the full article on wtatennis.com here

Photo credit @jimmie48Photography