HAIL SIMONA
Simona Halep wins Wimbledon as she crushes Serena Williams in stunning display
MY, MY, MY SIMONA!
What a performance.
Simona Halep, the darling of Romania destroyed Serena Williams, the first lady of tennis, 6-2 6-2 in just 56 minutes to make her own bit of history.
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Most of the focus had been on whether Williams could finally win that 24th Grand Slam singles title to
put her level on the all-time list with Margaret Court.
But Halep produced a sensational display of hard running and big hitting to become the first player from her country to win Wimbledon.
Williams, to an extent, beat herself, making error after error.
But Halep was superb, making the American play one more shot in almost every rally as well as striking some sublime winners herself.
Williams was erratic from the start, serving well enough but hitting two wayward groundstrokes on the way to being broken in the very first game.
It quickly became a contest between Williams’ power and Halep’s amazing court coverage and shotmaking.
And the Romanian was winning hands down. Everything she went for was coming off in style and she took her opponent’s serve again with a superb backhand down the line to open up a 3-0 lead.
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Williams was making too many errors to put pressure on her opponent but finally got on the board with a love game to make it 4-1.
The crowd was willing the seven-time champion to force her way back into the set but she could not convert her first break point of the match. Then Halep produced another breathtaking winner to hold for 5-1.
Would Halep’s nerve hold as she went to serve it out? “Serena, wake up!” urged a fan of the American, but the Romanian kept going about her business, digging balls out to force Williams to play one more shot time and time again.
When Williams went wide with a forehand, the first set was done in 26 minutes.
In the opening game of the second, Williams’ frustration was on full display.
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Twice she screamed in triumph at winning points after falling 0/15 behind.. But she also sent a 123mph serve into the net and massively overhit a routine forehand before holding serve.
Williams was putting the heat on Halep a bit more by now, but errors continued to undermine her cause.
And the Romanian just kept chasing down every ball and winning points she had no right to win.
That was the case in the fifth game when she sent back a defensive backhand and Williams overhit the put away to go a break down.
Halep kept her cool. Down 15/30 in the next game thanks to a netcord, she kept playing her game, kept putting depth on as many balls as she could, and held for 4-2.
Willams was getting desperate. A huge double fault and another error put her 0/30 down but she found three big serves to give herself game point.
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Back came Halep and soon she had a point for a double break. An ace saved it.
But then came a second. And the Romanian took it with a brilliant backhand.
And moments later, Halep was holding her head in disbelief at what she had done to the greatest female tennis player of all time.
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