Down 1-5, Halep rallies, puts more positive mindset to test
Simona Halep was not going to let a 1-5 deficit and three set points by Qiang Wang get her crazed Wednesday in the Miami Open.
In the past she might have slammed her racket against the court, engaged in a nasty conversation with herself, put her head down in despair. Not now. Well, not too much, that is.
Halep, the world’s thirdranked tennis player, caught herself quickly enough on Stadium Court to turn a potential meltdown into a triumphant turnaround.
She won 12 consecutive points after being down 1-5 in the second set and ultimately won 25 of the final 32 points to defeat Wang 6-4, 7-5 and advance to her first Miami Open semifinal since 2015.
“I started to be a little bit negative and talking around the court,’’ the 27-year-old Romanian said. “But I was able to stop that. I was much better then. I focused on the game. I think I did it pretty well.”
If Halep wins her 9 p.m. Thursday semifinal against No. 5 seed Karolina Pliskova, who beat Marketa Vondrousova, 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday night, she will vault to No. 1 in the world — whether she wins the tournament or not — when the new rankings are released Monday.
The Miami Open marks Halep’s 269th and 270th consecutive weeks in the Top 10. She ended 2018 No. 1 for the second time in her career, after reaching No. 1 for the first time on Oct. 9, 2017.
“Yeah, when I came here, I didn’t think at all about this chance to be No. 1.” Halep said Wednesday at Hard Rock Stadium. “It was very far, and I didn’t want to think about it. But now that I’m one match away, I would take it, and I would take the talking about it, because it gives me a little bit of pressure. But as I said, I play well with pressure, and I think it’s a big challenge . ... It’s a great thing.”’
Turns out that March 2017 at the Miami Open was one of the turning points for Halep, who was formerly coached by Darren Cahill, the man credited for much of her improvement on the court and in her attitude. That year at Miami, Halep was two points away from victory before losing to eventual Miami champion Johanna Konta. After the second set of that match, Cahill tried to encourage her with a pep-talk.
According to videos recorded that day, Cahill told Halep she was better than Konta and urged her to “Be brave in the big moments.’’
“You can write yourself off but I’m not writing you off,” Cahill said. “It’s up to you. It comes from within.”’
Replied Halep to her coach: “This is my character. Two double faults at the end of the tiebreak and I miss all the balls.”
Cahill and Halep parted ways, but eventually reunited before Cahill stepped down as her coach this past November “to take a 12-month break from coaching to be home more” for his children “with the final year of high school, sports and college preparations all becoming more time consuming,” he wrote on Instagram.
Now coached by Daniel Dobre, Halep said she owes Cahill much gratitude.
“After a tough match that I lost because of my negative mind,” she said Wednesday, “he told me that I just make myself suffer alone, and that’s why I’m not able to win matches — because my