TipResumen

PREVIEW

Winning the French Open title was the culmination of a long search Simona Halep to hold a Grand Slam title and we have seen other players struggle with the weight lifted of their shoulders. Some of the other girls who have won their maiden Grand Slam title in recent years have struggled in the immediate aftermath of dealing with the new level of fame, but Simona Halep looks like someone who wants to add to the French Open title as soon as possible. The hard courts have always been a surface on which Halep has been able to perform well, although the speedier surface does mean that opponents have more of a chance to hit through her on these courts. Halep has shown some very strong consistency on the hard courts in the last few seasons, but there have been signs of improvement in 2018. That makes Halep one of the favourites to win the US Open which begins at the end of the month and the Romanian has shown plenty of mental strength to win two matches on the same day to move through to the Quarter Final in Montreal. This may be a big challenge for her despite dominating the head to head with Caroline Garcia. The Frenchwoman is coming off a very impressive win over Maria Sharapova but she has to show she can compete with Halep having lost four of the five previous matches against the World Number 1 and perhaps being a little fortunate to even win one of those matches. It is the returning numbers on the hard courts which have prevented Garcia from having more success on this surface and that has to be a concern in this match up. As good as Garcia can be behind serve, she is facing an opponent in Halep who is winning almost 50% of points against the serve on the hard courts and so Garcia's return game is going to be really tested. Halep has served pretty effectively considering this is not considered a strength for her and I do think she is going to have a little too much for Garcia. It could be a closer match than some of their previous matches because Halep had to play back to back matches on Thursday and could have some fatigue issues, but the World Number 1 hasn't played a lot of tennis in recent weeks and so I am going to back her to cover in a win over Garcia in this Quarter Final.



PREDICTION

The World Number 1 has played two tough matches this week, but I think she will have enough to move through to the WTA Montreal Semi Final.