TipResumen

PREVIEW

Winning the French Open could be the start of something special for Simona Halep and I do think she is going to go very deep into the US Open tournament especially if she is given the right draw. The World Number 1 won the Montreal Premier Event last week to show she is in good nick on the hard courts and Halep has been good enough to produce top runs in back to back weeks at the Canada/Cincinnati Premier Events. In each of the last three seasons Halep has reached the Semi Final in both the Canada and Cincinnati Premier Event and all the rain this week will have given her time to recover physically from a tough week in Montreal. The numbers have also been very impressive on the hard courts and some could argue that Halep's consistency on this surface in 2018 makes her the player to beat, especially now she has won her maiden Grand Slam. The return is what makes Halep particularly dangerous as she keeps the pressure on her opponents and I do think think it will be very difficult for Ashleigh Barty to make this much more competitive than when they played last week in Montreal. As much as I like the improvements made by Barty, she won just five games in the Semi Final loss to Halep in Montreal and you can see her numbers take a sharp decline when she has faced top 20 Ranked players on the hard courts. The sample size is clearly not going to be the biggest, but it is enough for me to think Barty has perhaps found her ceiling at this moment of her career. Barty's serve is one that can be attacked by opponents especially of the level of Halep and I do think she will be put under immense pressure throughout this match. Perhaps if it had been played on the same day as Halep completing her Second Round win it would have been closer, but I think the World Number 1 will prove to be a little too well rounded for her Australian opponent. The Barty numbers on the hard courts slip in terms of points won behind first and second serve and on the return when she has faced top 10 opponents in her career on the hard courts. That is something of a mental block she needs to overcome, but Halep is playing too well to let that happen here and I will back her to move through with some relative comfort.



PREDICTION

The World Number 1 has shown she can produce her best tennis over two weeks and even when in differing conditions and I will back Simona Halep to get the better of Ashleigh Barty for the second week in a row.