Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep serve up Wimbledon classic

If you were told that a Wimbledon quarter-final featured nine games in a row where the serve was broken you might suspect it to be a bit of a mess with more than a few errors and one you could cheerfully miss. Well, in the case of Angelique Kerber vs Simona Halep, you'd be wrong.

Angelique Kerber celebrates after her two-set victory over Simona Halep yesterday. Picture: Getty

This could go down as a lost classic, talked about in whispered tones as the discerning fans’ pick as the match of these championships, full of rallies to make you gasp and, inevitably, brilliant returns.

Afterwards, each girl paid tribute to the other’s legs. Halep said of Kerber: “She’s strong on the legs, fighting to the end.” When told of the compliment, Kerber said: “Simona has the same strong legs.”

But it’s the German, who’s already won this year’s Australian Open, who advances to tomorrow’s semi-finals, having just managed to squeeze out her Romanian opponent 7-5, 7-6. The enthralled Centre Court’s only disappointment was that there couldn’t be a third set.

Kerber’s semi, against Venus Williams, will probably be completed in time for her to watch the German football team play theirs at Euro 2016. “They’re playing good football and they’re playing together,” she said. “I hope they can win.” Can Kerber win and go on and lift her second Slam title? Halep was impressed by her conqueror and believes she’s got every chance.

The first set was astonishing. Kerber held her serve in the opening game and then neither girl did for the next eight. This placed Kerber 5-3 up serving for the set. It was a wacky idea that she would manage to do this, completely crackpot.

It wasn’t so much that the serving was dreadful. I mean, neither girl was impersonating Francoise Durr of France who used to hit the ball with a feather-duster. Just that the quality of the groundstrokes was so good. Among the thrilling rallies, two in the fourth game were especially memorable, and maybe the pick of the many fine shots on display until that juncture was Halep’s double-handed backhand, for which she hunkered down low and fizzed the ball into the corners. Finally, in the tenth game, the Romanian won on her serve and we were all-square. Then Kerber decided, hey, that looks like a good idea, one worth trying, and come to think of it, didn’t I hold my serve right at the start? But then Halep couldn’t hold hers, conceding the set on a double-fault. To an extent, this summed up the match although it gives no hint of the high quality.

Kerber opened the second set by holding her serve. That made it two in a row – radical behaviour which if she kept it up could win her a place in the last four. The set actually went with serve for a while before Kerber achieved another break. Halep wasn’t doing anything wrong, apart from losing her serve but wasn’t the only one. She broke back only to spoil things in the usual way.

Now Kerber was serving for the match. Could she do it? Of course not. Kerber was just that little stronger, but Halep forced a tiebreak when refusing to be beaten far beyond the baseline, contriving wonderful passing shots with her forehand which slid over the net and squirted beyond reach. But eventually Kerber prevailed.

Afterwards Kerber admitted she’d never before won a match where she’d dropped serve six times. She knows she’ll have to serve “bigger and better” against Williams but insisted some credit had to go to Halep. “Simona was returning really well so I will not make too much drama on my serve.” Of her prospects for the rest of the week, she said: “I know I have the game to win the big tournament. But the pressure is there, of course.”

Halep was philosophical in defeat. “I’m sad now but I will be happy in the next days,” she said. She hopes her time will come at Wimbledon. “I think I can say it with courage I have a chance here. It’s like a dream. I keep it every day in my mind.”