The romanian Simona Halep, who has 12 wins in a row in Wimbledonand Elena Rybakina, the first Kazakh in the Grand Slam semifinals, entered the top four of the London Grand Slam this Wednesday.
Halep, who hasn’t lost a match here since 2018, beat American Amanda Anisimova very easily (6-2, 6-4). The Romanian took the first set in just half an hour and was up 5-1 in the second.
However, with defeat close at hand, Anisimova resurfaced with three straight games, leaving Halep 5-4 up and on serve. The American was placed 0-40, with three break balls, but lost the last five points of the match and said goodbye to her first quarterfinal at Wimbledon.
Halep is two games away from retaining the title she won in 2019, after she was unable to participate here last year due to injury.
Her rival in the semifinals will be Elena Rybakina, born in Moscow and nationalized Kazakh, who came back from Ajla Tomljanovic (4-6, 6-2, 6-3) to place her country in the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Rybakina beat a Tomljanovic who made an almost perfect first set, without conceding a break point with her service, but who fell apart from the second set.
The Kazakh has faced Halep three times, always on hard court, with a 2-1 advantage for the Romanian.
