Romania’s Simona Halep defeated Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit 6-1, 6-1 and reached the Australian Open semifinals in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Halep wasted no time over 28th seed Kontaveit without dropping a set.
Advertisement
Halep took just 53 minutes to outclass her opponent and seal her berth in the Australian Open semifinals for the second time in the last three years.
Halep will face Garbine Muguruza of Spain in the semi-finals on Thursday, who went her past opponent Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets to claim the match 7-5, 6-3.
The former world number 1 Muguruza produced 21 winners and six aces in a match that lasted 1 hour and 33 minutes, breaking her Russian opponent five times on the way to sealing a place for herself in the next round.
The win is being seen as a massive turn around for the 26-year-old star, who had won Grand Slam trophies in 2016 and 2017 before struggling to reproduce similar results in later seasons. The slump in form has seen the former world number 1 slide to number 32 in the rankings.
(With inputs from IANS)