Karolina Pliskova ousts Simona Halep 6-0 2-6 6-4 in the Round Robin in Shenzhen on Friday. Pliskova will face Ashleigh Barty in the semifinal.
Score, report, and key facts
1st set.
There was not much story in this set after the Czech conceded no games to the Romanian before winning the set 6-0.
2nd set.
Halep started off on the right foot in the set after breaking Pliskova in the 1st game (1-0). Nevertheless, there was more work to do for the Romanian to win the set as Karolina managed to break back in the 4th (2-2) game. The Romanian maintained her cool to break the Czech in the 5th (3-2) and in the 7th (5-2) game before conquering the set (6-2).
Karolina was completely knocked out in the last 4 games of the set (from 2-2 to 6-2).
3rd set.
Halep got off on the right foot in the set after breaking Pliskova in the 1st game (1-0). Notwithstanding, the Czech refused to bow to come back to break Halep 3 times in the 4th (2-2), in the 6th (4-2) gamein the 10th game before winning the set (6-4) after breaking his opponent in the last game.
A crucial moment of the match was when Pliskova won 5 consecutive games in the 3rd set to change the scoreline from 0-2 to 5-2.
Statistics
At the end of the match, the Czech scored 85 points vs. the Romanian’s 68 points.
The Czech was pretty effective in converting 54% of the break points that she procured (7/13). On the other side, Halep was pretty focused in converting 63% of the break points that she procured points (5/8). Yet, that was not enough to win the match.
After this match, the head to head between Pliskova and Halep is 4-7 for Simona.
Highlights Karolina Pliskova vs. Simona Halep WTA Finals – Shenzhen
Pliskova’s Interview
The match was a sheer roller-coaster and it had a weird end with a very lucky net cord from Karolina.
The Czech commented:
“I think I did good job overall through whole the match just going for it. I think this point was the reward.
The game was almost lost, I was 0-30, I just went for couple shots. I think I just got it like a present from somebody. Of course, it was big relief after this point because I felt was going to end up in the net. I was kind of happy, of course. Felt sorry for her because the match was so close. This kind of point at the last point is not the best.
It’s the last push. That’s why maybe I’m doing so well. If there is maybe two or three more weeks after, maybe I’m not doing so well. Right now I’m giving everything I have.”
Next Match: Karolina Pliskova vs. Ashleigh Barty – stats
Pliskova will play Barty in the semifinal.
This will be the 5th time that Karolina Pliskova and Ashleigh Barty clash against each other. The head to head is 2-2 for Pliskova and Barty (see full H2H stats), but they have never played each other on I.hard.
The last time that they competed against each other, Barty won 7-61 6-3 in the final in Miami back in March 2019.
Tennis Scores in Shenzhen
- Karolina PliskovaPliskova – Simona HalepHalep (6-0 2-6 6-4) – See score progression
- Belinda BencicBencic – Kiki BertensBertens (7-5 1-0 ret.) – See score progression
- Ashleigh BartyBarty – Petra KvitovaKvitova (6-4 6-2) – See score progression
- Elina SvitolinaSvitolina – Simona HalepHalep (7-5 6-3) – See score progression
- Kiki BertensBertens – Ashleigh BartyBarty (3-6 6-3 6-4) – See score progression
- Samantha Stosur/Shuai ZhangStosur/Shuai Zhang – Gabriela Dabrowski/Yifan XuDabrowski/Yifan Xu (4-6 6-4 10-5) – See score progression
- Simona HalepHalep – Bianca Vanessa AndreescuVanessa Andreescu (3-6 7-66 6-3) – See score progression
- Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina SiniakovaKrejcikova/Katerina Siniakova – Gabriela Dabrowski/Yifan XuDabrowski/Yifan Xu (6-4 6-2) – See score progression
- Su-Wei Hsieh/Barbora StrycovaHsieh/Barbora Strycova – Samantha Stosur/Shuai ZhangStosur/Shuai Zhang (6-4 4-6 10-5) – See score progression
- Naomi OsakaOsaka – Petra KvitovaKvitova (7-61 4-6 6-4) – See score progression
Upcoming matches
- Ashleigh BartyBarty – Karolina PliskovaPliskova (2-2) – See H2H details
- Elina SvitolinaSvitolina – Belinda BencicBencic (1-2) – See H2H details
