Wimbledon 2022: Halep, the only champ left standing, is back in the groove

Simona Halep got married last year so 2021 wasn’t without the odd special moment. Mostly though it was a nightmare.

Simona Halep celebrates winning through to the quarter-finals.

So injury-wrecked indeed that after tumbling down the rankings she contemplated quitting the game. The Romanian is glad she persevered, though, because 2022 is shaping up to be a whole lot better: 30 victories so far, the latest to scorch past Paula Badosa into the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

It was a near-perfect performance from Halep, winning 6-1, 6-2. Her Spanish opponent called it “a day to forget, everything went wrong” but would surely concede that Halep was virtually unplayable.

“A great match and I was really happy with the way I played,” said the 2019 champion, who was prevented from defending her title by Covid and then missed out on not just Wimbledon last year but also the French Open and the Olympics.

“It means a lot that I'm back in the quarter-finals after struggling so much with injuries and self-confidence. The injuries were three, four months. Then I lost the belief that I can be good again, in the top. I struggled for a long period. But now I’m really happy with the way I’m playing. I’m confident and it’s a pleasure to be on court.”

In the last eight Halep will play Amanda Anisimova, the American seeing off the challenge of France’s Harmony Tan, conqueror of Selina Williams and Katie Boulter, by a 6-2, 6-3 scoreline.

Tan, though, has had a fine tournament, impressing the crowds and confounding her opponents by chopping and slicing relentlessly. “That was a really tough match for me,” she said, “but I’m really happy to have made the second week. Wimbledon has been amazing for me.”

Another winner, Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan), was asked what she regarded the secret of her success. “I just know that I have this gift,” she said. “I'm tall and I play really fast. It's effortless, I would say. It's not something I'm working in the gym or something but it’s my weapon, and I'm just trying to use it as much as I can.”

It brought her a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Petra Martic (Croatia) and in what is the most open women’s competition for many years, with Halep the only champ remaining, the 23-year-old will next play Alja Tomljanovic, the Australian who 12 months ago brought Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon to an end.

After a hard-fought 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over France’s Alize Cornet, Tomljanovic said: “Today was crazy. Her level was really high from the get-go. I think the second point of the first game was so long that I kind of thought to myself ‘Oh my God, I don't know if I'm going to physically be able to keep up with her.’”

Tomljanovic is being mentored by Wimbledon legend Chris Evert who’s continued helping her despite battling ovarian cancer. “At one point I felt bad,” Tomljanovic admitted. “She was going through something … if you want to talk about problems in life, that’s scary. I told her: ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t want to bother you with my problems.’ She was like, no no, this is a distraction. We love each other and after my game she called me right away. I’m blessed to have her in my corner.”