Simona Halep continued to build upon her growing reputation as she easily fought her way into the semi-finals of Wimbledon with a swashbuckling demolition of Sabine Lisicki. Straight off the back of reaching the French Open final, the Romanian defeated an error-prone Lisicki 64 60.
And the match started unsurprisngly, with two of the toughest fighters on tour havin to withstand some serious pressure in their opening service games and while Sabine Lisicki showed just enough to squeeze through, the aggresive baseline returns of the German proved too hot to handle for the Romanian who soon found herself an early break down. The German sealed her next service game with a delightful drop shot which caught Halep unawares on the baseline.
In a confident mood, Lisicki cast a very different shadow from the player she was just 24 hours before, hitting smoothly and forcing Halep to defend deep from behind the baseline. However, Lisicki has always seemed susceptible to faltering under the pressure of the occassion - ala last year's final - and before too long found herself break point down. Having fired a big serve and on the attack, the German moved to the net to finish off an easy winner but somehow fired it into the ball into the bottom of the net and Halep was back on serve.
Lisicki had to respond and suddenly came back fighting in the next game, attacking Halep more and more and going for broke on some of her massive forehands. But the notoriously robust Halep swatted back everything she could throw at her and held her nerve when it mattered.
This would prove telling. She had suggested a meltdown already today, and now Lisicki seemed to be faltering. A double fault and two horrible shots later and she was suddenly staring down the barrel and while she did produce a moment of magic to save one of the points - a glorious winner on the run - she hit yet another forehand long and it suddenly looked ominous for the German.
Halep, meanhwile, had grown and grown with every point, defensively brilliant and offensively battering. And she showed little empathy toward her now beleaguered opponent, serving out the set in the most comfortable of fashions and now looking levels above the German.
A nervy opening service game in the second set did little to ignite the Lisicki flame, with the former finalist struggling to stem the Romanian tide, whilst finding it impossible to break down her stubborn defence.
This appeared to force her into some horrible shot making, with Lisicki needlessly producing a continous inline of errors, as she failed to exert her self. Deuce point, break point, advantage point and back again, and it culminated in a wild backhand error from Lisicki off of a return which clipped the net cord, handing the break and seemingly all of the momentum to Halep.
A quick hold later and several errors in her own game, and the match suddenly seemed beyond the German as she was broken to the loss of just one point, and looking very lost indeed. With error after error firing from Lisicki's racket, and Halep seemingly never missing a shot, the match seemed to be only going one way.
And it was sealed a few games later, with Simona Halep delivering another breathless service game, and sealing the bagel on the back of another Lisicki error. It proved to be a merciless match from the Romanian, defeating last year's finalist in just under an hour and suddenly looking very, very good for the final.
Result
[3] S Halep d. [19] S Lisicki 64 60