Halep rallies past Kenin, awaits Venus
No. 1 seed could face Williams sisters back-to-back in Oz
MELBOURNE, Australia — Push Simona Halep to the brink, and she summons her best. The Australian Open's top-seeded woman got all she could handle from 20-year-old American Sofia Kenin in the second round before taking the last four games to emerge with a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 victory that took 2 hours Thursday.
“Well, I have no idea how I won this tonight,” said Halep, the reigning French Open champion. “It's so tough to explain.”
A year ago at Melbourne Park, Halep was a point from being eliminated in two matches but came back each time en route to reaching the final. In the first round this year, she was down a set and a break before turning things around. And this time, against a hard-hitting Kenin, Halep trailed 4-2 in the third set and managed to not cede another game.
And that was despite getting what she described as “a little bit injured” in the second set; she wasn't always able to run with her usual verve.
“Hopefully,” said Halep, whose No. 1 ranking is up for grabs during the Australian Open, “next round I play better.”
That third-round matchup will be quite intriguing, because it'll be against seven-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 Venus Williams. The winner of that could face Williams' younger sister, 23-time major champ Serena, in the fourth round.
Venus, 38, won a three-setter that finished a little before Halep's did. Venus ran away down the stretch, defeating Alize Cornet 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.
“She was just putting more intensity than me. She was hitting harder, deeper,” Cornet said of the third set. “I had a little less energy than in the second set, and she took advantage of it and really raised her level.”
Serena advanced to the third round by beating 2014 Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-2. That match was followed in Rod Laver Arena by No. 1 Novak Djokovic's 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a rematch of the 2008 final at Melbourne Park.
That one ended in the wee hours of Friday, Melbourne time, just after two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza and Johanna Konta got going at 12:30 a.m. in what is believed to be the latest-starting match in tournament history. Muguruza eventually won 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 7-5 at 3:12 a.m. (Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast.)
Other winners in the women's draw included reigning U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka, Karolina Pliskova, Madison Keys, No. 27-seeded Camila Giorgi and No. 28 Hsieh Su-Wei.
Danielle Collins, a two-time NCAA champion for Virginia, earned her first two Grand Slam match victories this week, ousting No. 14 seed Julia Goerges and Sachia Vickery. Collins will face No. 19 seed Caroline Garcia of France in the round of 32.
In men's action, Milos Raonic toughed out a 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (13-11), 7-6 (7-5) victory over 2014 champ Stan Wawrinka that put the 16th-seeded Canadian into the third round.
“I missed a few little points,” Wawrinka said, “that could have changed the match.”
So true.
“It feels like 4 hours passed by in about 15 minutes. The adrenaline takes over,” said Raonic, the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2016. “I was very fortunate to stay alive in that fourth set.”
They were interrupted for about a half-hour while the roof at Rod Laver Arena was shut because of rain at 4-all in the third set. Raonic thought that helped him.
“I do a little bit better indoors than outdoors,” he said, “so thank you for raining up there.”
In other men's action on Day 4, No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev won in five sets and 2014 U.S. Open runner-up Kei Nishikori withstood 59 aces from 39-year-old Ivo Karlovic en route to a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 5-7, 7-6 (9-7) victory.
But No. 7 Dominic Thiem retired from his match in the third set after dropping the first two, and 2018 Australian Open semifinalist Hyeon Chung lost to Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4.