Simona Halep produced a superb performance in her Australian Open quarter final duel with Karolina Pliskova to power her way through to the final four in Melbourne. It was the biggest match of the tournament so far, a top-billed showdown this year as the two were front-runners in betting to go and collect the title. But Romania’s Halep was the was the one who rose to the occasion strongly crushing her opponent 6-3 6-2.
Halep was on the backfoot early on in the contest and slipped to 3-0 down in the first set. The pivotal moment of the match came in the fourth game of the match when Halep had to see of a break point to avoid going 4-0 down. Instead, she dug in there, held out to pull things back to 3-1 instead and her crucial hold saw the whole momentum of the game change.
Halep rallied herself to rattle off nine straight games at one point and had the match wrapped up in just 72 minutes. That was a confidence booster that really saw Halep drive forward and gain control. Following that early slip up it was a strong service match from Halep which will have pleased her and puts her in pretty good stead to push on for what would be her first ever Grand Slam title.
She will now have to go up against former World Number One and 2016 Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in the semi finals. Kerber has been back to her prime in this tournament and she destroyed US Open finalist Madison Keys 6-1 6-2 in less than an hour in their quarter final duel. With the win the German gets herself back into the top ten in the world. After some disappointments last season, once again Kerber is within site of an elite title.
Halep v Kerber Head to Head
This should be a blockbuster of a semi-final as the two of them have four wins each from their eight previous meetings. They didn’t meet up last year but in 2016 they met five times in all with Kerber edging the meetings 3-2. Kerber has won the last two meetings on hard courts and this will be just their second Grand Slam clash after meeting at Wimbledon in 2016 at the quarter-final stage, which the German won.
Simona Halep v Angelique Kerber Winner odds
Angelique Kerber 4/6, Simona Halep 5/4* (betting odds taken January 25th, 2018 at 1:26 a.m.)
Simona Halep v Angelique Kerber Prediction
Halep has battled well, showing a tremendous amount of character through the campaign. She had an injury scare in her first match and in the third round was on the ropes as Lauren Davis had multiple match points against her. But she is on a nine-match winning streak, which includes her Shenzhen Open title a fortnight ago. Kerber was aggressive and positive in her quarter final match and is clearly running with a freshness.
It is so hard to split them up, they have a title each to their name this year and it’s so tough to call. Kerber has perhaps shown fewer vulnerabilities in her run to the semi-finals than Halep has done and the German does represent some value at 4/6 with Betfair* (betting odds taken January 25th, 2018 at 1:26 a.m.) just to get the win. This is probably going to go the distance so look for three sets to be played out as well.
