Halep curbs Kerber in Oz Open thriller

MELBOURNE: World No 1 Simona Halep quelled a tenacious Angelique Kerber fightback and saved two match points to reach her first Australian Open final with a riveting 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 victory on Rod Laver Arena yesterday.

A wildly unpredictable match veered one way, then the other, before the Romanian ended Kerber’s resistance on her fourth match point in a spellbinding deciding set that pushed both players to the limit.

Former champion Kerber, who won only five points in losing the first five games, was jelly-legged at times but fought off two match points in the 10th game of the third set before losing two of her own two games later.

In the end Halep’s desire for a maiden Grand Slam title proved decisive as an exhausted Kerber hit a backhand long.

Halep faces Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in the first Australian Open final between two players still chasing a first major since 1980. On top of that, the showdown between the top two seeds will have the number one ranking on the line.

“I feel happy. I feel proud that I could stay there and fight till the end,” said Halep, who has fought for 12 hours and 16 minutes to reach her third Slam final.

“I tried to be calm but today I was like a rollercoaster, up and down. But I was not afraid of losing, so maybe that’s why I won those match points.”

She will need to dredge the depths of her energy reserves against Wozniacki if she is to join the Grand Slam winners’ circle after falling at the last hurdle twice in Paris.

“If it’s going to come, it’s going to come,” added the 26-year-old.

Halep predicted a marathon against former world number one Kerber but when she charged to a 5-0 lead in 14 minutes it looked as though she might have caught the German on an off-day.

But Kerber roused herself to win 12 of the next 13 points and although Halep closed the set, the touch-paper had been lit.

It felt like Halep was turning the screw when she ran a red-faced Kerber into the ground to seize a 3-1 lead in the second set and had a point for 4-1 lead.

But Kerber fought back and Halep’s patience snapped in the next game as she put a backhand into the tramlines to drop serve before 21st seed Kerber held to level the match.

At various times in the 69-minute decider, the players were left propping themselves up with their rackets, lungs heaving, as the rallies grew ever more excruciating. — Reuters