WTA: Finals: Simona Halep wins with instinct, Wozniacki simply very smooth

Simona Halep has confirmed her number one status and finished Caroline Garcia’s 11th victory run. Carolina Wozniacki then won the match against Elina Svitolina.

By Florian Goosmann from Singapore

If Darren speaks Cahill, you should listen. Cahill gave an interview to the New York Times from a few days ago, talking about his former protégés Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi, about coaching in general, and about the year 2017 with Simona Halep, both of whom inevitably proclaimed a year of transition in spring. Halep was injured at the end of last year, also at the beginning of this year, which should only really start in Miami – where the paths of the two of them separated.

“The fact that she is the number 1 here in Singapore speaks for her,”said Cahill,”She only won one tournament, it was a big tournament in Madrid, but she has managed to put herself in a good starting position several times. She made it to the final in Rome, where she broke her ankle when she led 5:2 in the first set against Svitolina. Then she made it to the French Open Final. And this was a bitter match against Yelena Ostapenko. She had tears in her eyes for months at night when she thought about how close she was, how well she played, and the match slipped through her fingers.”

Cahill continued to praise Halep for putting all the kicks into the belly and putting himself in the current position, and then he said an important phrase:”It shows that she has a remarkable inner power – she is much stronger than she thinks of herself.”

Halep’s match against Caroline Garcia could be hung up on these words. In round one, after a 3:2 lead, she quickly had to accept the 3:4 when she called Cahill on the pitch,”I have to play instinctively,”she told him twice, and Cahill let her do it.

When Garcia hit 4:4 and 30:15, Halep let her remarkable inner strength and instinct run wild. Garcia did the tempo, but Halep simply joined in the drumming, going on and on, the consistently rapid rallies lasted forever, and when Halep had just taken the upper hand a bit, Garcia responded with a strong short forehand cross. Halep’s only chance was to play this cross, because she had to run to the right and into the field and could only take the ball deeply. A long cross-stroke would have been the safe option, maybe even the only real way to stay in the rally somehow.

But Halep, you could tell right down to the last row of this rally, wanted this point too much – and played: instinctively. She circled a perfect forehand longline over the actually too high side of the net, to the surprise of Garcia, who played the backhand into the net.

It was the rallies of the set, and shortly afterwards Halep had won the first round. She snatched the Frenchman’s tooth when she made up a 0:40 gap in both the 2:1 and 3:1 sets with a break in the second set. Shortly afterwards, the score was 6:4,6:2.

I noticed that I was thinking too much about playing a certain shot,”Halep said after the match. And I didn’t have the self-confidence, I wanted to relax, not think too much, play by instinct. Because that’s usually good. So I relaxed and played what I felt like in the second – and that was much better.”

Halep will also need a successful instinct against Caroline Wozniacki on Wednesday. The Danish player left Elina Svitolina with no chance at the 6:2,6:0.

More information will follow!