Romania’s tennis ace Simona Halep got closer to winning her first tournament this year as she qualified for the Mutua Madrid Open semifinals on Thursday, after a 6-1, 6-1 win over American Coco Vandeweghe.

A few hours after this victory, Halep and her team mate Irina Begu also managed to qualify into the doubles semifinals, beating two of the favorites, namely Indian Sania Mirza and Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova. Halep and Begu won the match after three sets ended 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 (in the super tiebreak).

Simona Halep will thus play two semifinals on Friday. In the singles competition, she will face Latvian Anastasia Sevastova, who she has beat twice in the last 12 months.

The tournament in Madrid is an important one for Halep, not only because she would finally break the ice and win a tournament this year, but also because she is defending the title won in 2016.

Simona Halep has recently lost four places in the WTA ranking of the best women’s tennis player in the world, and has fallen to the eighth position. One of the explanations is that the Madrid Open tournament, which Halep won last year, is being organized one week later this year. Thus, the Romanian lost the points won in 2016.

The Mutua Madrid Open tournament will end on May 14.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com