Simona Halep to battle in-form Zhang in Wimbledon Quarter Final
2018 French Open winner Simona Halep faces a tough test on Court One today as she faces China’s Zhang Shuai in the quarter finals at SW19.
The pair have met three times already, and despite the Romanian Halep being ranked 43 places higher than her 30 year old opponent, Zhang leads 2-1. The 7th seeded Halep got the better of her opponent at their first meeting back in 2012, but has since lost two straight sets matches both in 2016 at the Australian Open and in Beijing.
Playing her fourth Wimbledon quarter final, Halep is bidding to match her best performance at the All England Club. She made her only semi final in 2014 when she was defeated by Canadian and eventual runner up Eugenie Bouchard. She has since lost quarter final matches to Konta in 2017, and Kerber in 2017.
Bidding to win her seventh of 13 Grand Slam quarter finals, Halep has looked in great form at this year’s tournament. She beat Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich and compatriot Mihaela Buzarnescu in the first two rounds, before crushing twice semi finalist Victoria Azarenka in the third round at the expense of just four games. In her fourth round she ended the dream run of 15 year old Coco Gauff 6-3 6-3.
Ranked 50th in the world, Zhang Shuai is playing her second ever Grand Slam quarter final. Born in Tianjin, Zhang reached this round at the 2016 Australian Open, beating Halep en route. Before last week however, she had never won a match at Wimbledon, losing in the first round all five times she had played previously.
The Chinese player surged through the first three rounds, dropping just 15 games in total against 23rd seed Caroline Garcia, qualifier Yanina Wickmayer and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki. She was given a tougher contest in the fourth round however, having to beat 19 year old Dayana Yastremska in three sets 6-4 1-6 6-2.
The winner of this match will face either 8th seed Ukrainian Elina Svitolina or 68th ranked Czech Karolina Muchova who is the lowest ranked player left in the draw.
Halep (Romania)
Age: 27
WTA ranking: 7
Career Wimbledon record: 21-8
Career Grand Slam record: 84-35
Total 2019 record: 33-10
Time spent on court so far: 5hr 54
Zhang (China)
Age: 30
WTA: 50
Career Wimbledon record: 4-5
Career Grand Slam record: 20-27
Total 2019 record: 13-14
Time spent on court so far: 5hr 18
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