Halep Rallies to Win Indian Wells Title
Simona Halep fought off a tough first set defeat and rallied to beat former champion Jelena Jankovic 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 and win the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Sunday. The title is the 11th of Halep’s career and the biggest up to this point.
“First of all I want to congratulate Jelena—you were amazing,” said Halep. “Well done for a great two weeks here. You did a great job, and it was an amazing final. I’m really happy I could win today. This is my biggest title and I will never forget it.”
Halep found herself in a big hole midway through the contest. After dropping the first set, she had her serve broken early in the second to go behind 1-3. While the Romanian broke back and evened things at three-all, Jankovic would break again and was serving for the match up 5-4.
The world number three Halep would not be denied and broke again to even the set. After pulling out a couple of incredibly tight games, Halep took the second set after 63 minutes.
“At the end of the second set I got a little bit nervous. I got a little bit tentative, and that was my big mistake,” said Jankovic. “I let her come back into the match. I kind of let those nerves take the best out of me. That shouldn’t happen.”
Neither player had much success on serve in a deciding frame that contained seven breaks total. Halep was able to notch one more break than Jankovic to take it 6-4 and win the two and a half hour match.
Jankovic committed 61 unforced errors in total including nine double-faults that allowed Halep to claw her way back into the contest.
Halep has now won three titles this season and rises to the top of the leader board in the Road to Singapore standings. She still sits in third place behind Maria Sharapova for second in the world.
