I wish every tennis week was held in Stuttgart.  It’s not a coincidence that each year there are a handful of matches from this tournament that are in my top 20 countdown and there is no doubt that the first of the semi-finals between Caroline Wozniacki and Simona Halep will be featuring in 2015.  In what was a legitimate contender for match of the year, Wozniacki produced her best performance in 2015 with a 7-5 5-7 6-2 victory over Halep in two hours and 58 minutes of superb tennis.

The first set was extremely close; Simona marginally had the edge early on as she brought up five break points with Wozniacki holding to 3-2 by virtue of some really positive play.  Wozniacki was really hitting through her forehand and playing aggressively, much like how she had ended the 2014 season.  Halep was having an easier time of it on her serve, but she was operating more defensively.  There were times when she was in control of the rallies and could have stepped in, but she stayed back.  As Wozniacki grew stronger on serve, she started to make inroads on Halep’s serve and eeked out the first set point with a heavy backhand strike.  Halep saved it with a forehand into the corner, but Wozniacki came back again to convert the set on her second set point.

Wozniacki played a really superb opening set, but I felt like Halep’s level could go up a couple of notches. Halep came back from a toilet break and powered into a double break lead.  At times, Halep’s point construction was just delightful to watch.  There was also a return winner that was just woahhhh.  Wozniacki had a little breather at the start of the second set but soon was back in contention as she recovered both breaks.  As Halep served at *4-5 30-30, Wozniacki was in control of a point.  She didn’t do enough though with a forehand down-the-line. which allowed Halep to pass and extinguish the potential match point.  The end of the second set featured some gripping rallies.  As Wozniacki served at 5-5, there were game points, break points, just about everything… a trademark backhand down-the-line saw Halep seal the break.  She faced break points in the next game but won the game to force a decider.

This match deserved a third set and it delivered! There was a crazy long rally in the third game where Halep almost stopped.  You could see she was feeling it and that her tank was nearly empty.  Halep was holding her side/back on occasion, but I wonder if it may have just been fatigue.  Halep has played a lot of tennis this year.  The third set really demonstrated how FIT Wozniacki is.  She kept running down every ball and looked like she could do so for many more hours.  Halep mounted a brief fightback at the end with a couple more ridiculously entertaining points.   However, Wozniacki deservedly wrapped up the win.  In addition to her forehand looking really impressive this week, her serving statistics have been solid all week and she had 77% first serves in this match.   Wozniacki will play Angelique Kerber or Madison Brengle in Sunday’s Stuttgart final, which will be previewed here on Moo’s Tennis Blog later today…

Photo in this post Jimmie48 Tennis Photography