HALEP PUZZLE
H Suh-wei (Tai) bt S Halep (Rom) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 World No 1 can’t solve riddle of Suh-wei
THERE is a school of thought that the ongoing obliteration of seeds from the women’s draw has lessened its appeal. Plainly those folk have not yet seen or heard Hsieh Su-wei.
It is hard to work out which is the more mind-boggling and amusing — her shots on court or her words in press conferences. In either environment, second-guessing her next move is a magnificent exercise in futility.
In one sense, that meant Simona Halep, the world No 1, was dumped out in the third round by the most weird array of shots you might ever see. Double-handed forehand slices, serves as slow as 63mph, drop shots from four metres behind the baseline — this 32-year-old from Taiwan, who ranks only 48th in the world, must be the most gloriously unorthodox player in either draw.
Indeed, Halep, the world No 1 and reigning French Open champion, looked utterly frazzled at the end of an encounter in which she held a match point before losing 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
But the tennis was only the half of it. In order, last night’s postmatch discussion bounced from lobsters to afternoon tea to the frustrations of her practice partners and her boredom when it comes to watching her sport on TV.
As she put it: ‘I don’t really watch tennis much. Sometimes I feel, “Oh, maybe I can steal something from this player”. But I don’t like to watch a full match.’
Perhaps it’s because no one does it quite like her. That is not to position her as some kind of invincible enigma — she peaked at world No 23 five years ago and, truthfully, she’s a far better doubles player.
But as a spectacle, she is fantastic and as a riddle, she will take some solving. In an era where physical power has often ruled, she relies on guile and poses a challenge that is unique, which would explain why, on her day, she has been able to beat Garbine Muguruza, Jo Konta and Agnieszka Radwanska at various junctures in the past year. Her day evidently doesn’t come too often on the singles court — this is her best run at a Slam — but when it comes it can drive the best players to distraction.
From the offset here it was clear that Halep would struggle. Beating the Hsieh serve was no problem — she did it four times in winning the first set. But she was also broken twice herself in that time, so the warning had been sounded.
Hsieh took the second set 6-4 but appeared to be heading out at 5-2 down in the third. She broke to get back to 5-4 but at 30-40 faced a match point, which she saved before snatching the next two games with defensive tennis. When she finally got a match point of her own, Halep netted to become the ninth of the top 10 seeds to depart. Seventh seed Karolina Pliskova is the highest ranked survivor.
Afterwards, Hsieh was a mixture of giggles and charming tales. Having explained how ‘lobster and strawberries’ have fuelled her stay in London, she said: ‘We need to find something new. But my nephew is really picky. Before my nephew was like, “afternoon tea, afternoon tea” and I had to take him before playing. Now I need to ask him again.’
There was also an acceptance that it would be ‘silly’ to dream too big this fortnight and an admission that training with her has been a nightmare for hitting partners.
‘I normally drive the girl crazy because when I practice, in two shots I do drop shot,’ she said. ‘If I don’t drop shot, I hit as hard as I can and the girls get crazy again.
‘Maybe I should have someone to travel with me and I don’t drive the other girls crazy.’
Halep will surely know how they all feel.