Simona Halep drops Doha title to Mertens in a 3 set shocker loss
Little things sometimes mean a lot, but for Simona Halep the fact that she took the opener set advantage at the Doha final meant much to Belgium's Elise Mertens too. By winning the first set 6-3, Halep might have become too relaxed and dug a hole for herself as she fought to overcome the more aggressive Mertens in the second. Mertens knew she had to step her game up and was determined to make her game a priority and win.
Halep got many balls back with long rallies to snatch a three-game lead in the next set as she watched Mertens make careless errors giving her easy points. They have played twice before with Halep getting the best of Belgium twice coming last year at Roland Garros than at the Madrid Masters. But that was then and this is now. Mertens seemed to have learned from her mistakes and started playing super aggressive tennis taking a 5-4 lead as she clenched her fist in accomplishment. It wasn't long that her confidence soared and she had grabbed the set from Halep at 6-4. As the match went on there were medical timeouts with Mertens having back issues and then Halep getting her foot wrapped by the trainer.
The deciding set was promising for both but maybe it was the foot or her tiredness that Halep's movements didn't appear as fluid as from the start of the match. The rallies were deep and intense with both trying to find the other's weakness, but too often it was Halep who lost the point of the rally. The games were levelled to 3-all with Mertens moving up a break and her self-assurance was high. She wasn't making many unforced errors then as she kept the pressure on Halep and soon it was all the Belgium's joy of scoring a few more games and the title was hers.
Mertens, an unseeded player in this tournament was speechless and gave a broad grin to say that "This week everybody worked hard but it's nice to get the trophy." Perhaps she meant also the title. But Halep said to Mertens: "I wish you the best, you are a great player." It was the second time Halep played Doha and she was simply glad to have gone deep into the final. She played last year without the same results. She had to withdraw at last year's Doha after her quarterfinal win over CiCi Bellis and talked a bit at press conference time on her experience saying "...I had pain every day so it was not easy to manage it...today was too much...I withdraw because I couldn't play anymore and it will be dangerous if I force it...it's the same foot as in Melbourne. This Doha was the first final under her new coach Thierry van Cleemput and even though she didn't get the title, there was confidence in knowing she may have the good luck to follow her throughout this new season.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2toxkWH
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