Serena Hangs on to Beat Halep and Advance to Miami Finals

World number one Serena Williams and world number three Simona Halep met in a much-anticipated semifinal contest on Thursday night at the Miami Open. Both players entered the match on fire: Halep has the most match wins on the WTA Tour this season, while Serena has yet to lose in 2015.

The match did not disappoint, going the distance with Serena eventually outlasting her Romanian opponent 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

Serena looked like she would be on her way to a comfortable victory early on. The top-seeded and top-ranked American hit some strong forehand winners in the fourth game, breaking Halep for a 3-1 advantage. She would go on to take the set 6-2, firing twice as many winners as unforced errors, to seize control of the match.

The second set saw holds exchanged for the first eight games to bring the frame to 4-4. Halep converted the lone break of the set and was able to serve it out, forcing the highly-anticipated match into a deciding third set.

Halep refused to go away quietly in this one. Serena built leads of 3-0 and 5-2 in the set, only to see the Romanian even it up at 5-5. But that was all she was able to conjure up, as Serena held and then broke to close out the two hour and eight minute contest.

“I actually had a fun match. I just feel it was on my racquet,” said Serena. “I had chances in the second set but didn’t take them. That’s something I can’t do going into the Grand Slams coming up.”

When asked about Halep’s game, Serena said, “I really like her attitude on the court. I like how she gets pumped up. I like how she fights. I like how she plays. I just think its fun to watch and it’s different—it’s definitely a refreshing type of game.”

Serena extended her winning streak to 20 matches. She will look to improve that to 21 straight when she meets the 12th-seeded Carla Suarez-Navarro in the final.

The Spaniard ousted the ninth-seeded German Andrea Petkovic in the first match of the day on Thursday. Suarez-Navarro was the superior player all afternoon long, taking advantage of 32 Petkovic unforced errors and losing just nine points on her service games to coast to the straight set win.