Bengaluru, November 23: The WTA has listed Simona Halep's epic duel with Elina Svitolina in the French Open quarterfinal in June as one of the five best Grand Slam matches in 2017.
Both Halep and Svitolina were pre-tournament favourites at Roland Garros and no wonder it was mentioned in some circles as the 'real final'.
Halep was steamrolling over one opponent after the other in the Parisian clay before she met her match with the Ukrainian.
Svitolina had the measure of her opponent in Rome just two ways ago and it was pay back time for Halep in Paris.
The Romanian staged one of the greatest comebacks ever in Grand Slam history. Halep lost the first set 3-6 and had her back to the walls after trailing 1-5 in the second set and was virtually staring at defeat.
🇷🇴 @Simona_Halep sauve 1 balle de match et remporte le 2e set contre @ElinaSvitolina #RG17
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 7, 2017
Halep saves 1 match point and takes the 2nd set! pic.twitter.com/oUeAQSn6eW
But she staged a 'houdini act', saved a match point, drew level by winning the second set 7-6 (8-6) which she won in tie breakers before blowing away her opponent 6-0 in the decider to storm into the semifinals.
"I just sat down at 1-5, and I said that the match is lost. That's it. It's over. And then I started to feel more relaxed - maybe because I thought it's finished - and it came," recalled Halep about her epic win.
"I put some high balls. I just tried to make her move more, to open the court, and it came. I don't know how, but it was really good.
"But I believed that it's gonna come, it's gonna turn something around, and that's it. I'm just happy. I am not thinking about how it was. I just take the fight thing, that I was fighting till the end, and I enjoy.," added Halep, who beat Krolina Pliskova Kvitova in the semis, went on to reach the finals, before losing to eventual winner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
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