Simona Halep is the world no.1 and the favorite to win this Australian Open. For this reasons, the Romanian was expected to have an extremely easy run in the first round when opposed to 17-year-old and world no.193 Destanee Aiava. Eventually, things were not that easy for Simona that she found herself battling in a strange situation.

What happened?

Simona was 2-5 down against the teenager that was blasting everything at the Romanian from the back of the court. Aiava looked uncharacteristically weak, and she got a lengthy medical time-out before playing the 8^th game. That looked pretty unfair for Simona that was coming back strongly, and she was about to capitalize on Destanee’s lack of fitness. Eventually, the young Australian came back (“fresh”) and Simona found her way to win the opening set in the tiebreak.

Moving forward, the Romanian had to cope with another scare. In fact, Simona broke her opponent immediately in the 2^nd set, but then she fell after twisting her (already struggling) ankle. After another lengthy time-out, Simona was able to come back and win this match 7-6 (5) 6-1 after 1 hour and 51 minutes.

Halep getting left ankle taped after this. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/DmvAvgaUAM

— Chris Oddo (@TheFanChild) January 16, 2018

Concerns for #Halep, who rolled her already-taped ankle stretching for a forehand. Trainer out now… #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/QuuDVv0xjW

— Live Tennis (@livetennis) January 16, 2018

Next vs. Bouchard

Simona will face Genie Bouchard in the 2^nd round. The head to head is 2-10 for Halep.