What a final!
Simona Halep was the hot favorite to win her 1st Roland Garros title against the world no.10 Sloane Stephens.
The Match
Simona decided not to commit the same mistake she did last year when she was too passive against Jelena Ostapenko in the French Open final. Instead, the world no.1 opted for being the aggressor and that in a way played well for Sloane at least at the beginning since the American was great in counter-punching Halep shots.
Eventually, Simona found herself in a desperate situation when she was 3-6 0-2 down. That was the moment that everything changed with the Romanian starting to just “enjoying the match.”
Indeed, Simona really enjoyed that to conquer the following 4 games (4-2) with the strong backing of the fans. The American refuses to fold to make things even (4-4). The next 2 games probably defined the all Roland Garros with Simona winning them and bringing the affair to the decider.
The 3rd set was completely dominated by Halep that clinched a decisive 5-0 lead before winning the contest 3-6 6-4 6-1.
This is Simona’s 17th career title, the second of the year and, most important, her first major.
It takes a village.@Simona_Halep climbs up to thank her team.#RG18 pic.twitter.com/HuR0w5e6Tt
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 9, 2018
| FINALLY: SLAM CHAMPION |
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