Serena Routs Halep to Reach Indian Wells Semis
Top seed and world number one Serena Williams rolled into the BNP Paribas Open semifinals on Wednesday, cruising past Simona Halep 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour in Indian Wells, Calif.
It was Halep who got ahead early in this one, securing the first break of the match. But Serena bounced back from her slow start, breaking Halep three times in the opening set, and would notch the only break in the second set to advance.
“She obviously has been in good form the past couple years,” said Serena. “So, yeah, I feel really good just to get under there and buckle down and to win that.”
Serena finished with 28 winners and 24 unforced errors. In the semifinals she will take on third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
Radwanska knocked off Petra Kvitova 6-2, 7-6(3) in her quarterfinal match up on Wednesday. She committed just four unforced errors in the opening set, and fought back from 2-4 down in the second set to outlast Kvitova in the tie-breaker to move on.
“I have good experience [from] the first match, almost losing 5-3 in the third. So I was pretty calm,” she said. “Obviously that’s just one break, so you just keep going. And I was a little bit lucky in the end.”
This semifinal will be a rematch of the Australian Open semifinals when Serena beat up on Radwanska 6-0, 6-4. The American is 9-0 all-time against Radwanska.
The other semifinal in Indian Wells will be determined today as 13th seed Victoria Azarenka will play Magdalena Rybarikova in one quarterfinal, while 18th seed Karolina Pliskova will take on Darya Kasatkina in the other.
