Simona Halep upsets Irina-Camelia Begu to move into the last eight – Hobart International 2012
Romanian world number 57, Simona Halep, pulled up an upset by defeating her eighth seed compatriot, Irina-Camelia Begu, in the second round of Hobart International tournament on Tuesday. It was the first major upset of the second
round matches, as the eighth seeded player was ousted in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in just over an hour and 30 minutes.
No one expected such a surprising outcome because Begu looked extremely devastating in the first round but her performance on Tuesday was a sub-standard one. It seemed like her compatriot had more conviction in her talent than
her. The psychological advantage of two head-to-head triumphs in Bucharest event in 2007 and 2008 seemed to have played its part, as Halep sealed her third straight set win over Begu; leads the head-to-head scores with 3-0.
An emphatic start to the match witnessed Halep cracking her opponent in the first game with a break; she held her serve and stunned everyone with another break, completely dismantling the confidence of the eighth seeded Romanian.
Inferior ranked Romanian continued her aggression to bag the fourth game of the set and take a majestic lead of 4-0 upfront.
Begu finally managed to hold on to her serve in the fifth game and broke in the next game to hint a comeback. It seemed like viewers had an enthralling battle on cards but Halep was extremely smart in changing gears and slowing
the momentum of the match to frustrate her opponent. She held her serve in the seventh game and broke the impetus of her opponent sucessfully. No more breaks were seen in the remaining games of the set and the inferior ranked Romanian bagged the first set.
Second set started in the similar fashion as the first one did; Halep broke in the opening game with three consecutive winners down the line and held her serve to take the crucial lead upfront. Both players held their respective
serves in the next four games; eighth seed was in continuous hunt for a vital break that would have allowed her the opportunity to level the scores but she failed to find one as the scores moved to 4-2 in favour of Halep.
Pressurized with the shortage of games to break her opponent’s serve, Begu made a pivotal mistake by smashing two simple returns out of the prescribed boundaries of the court and gave an easy break to her opponent, who pulled curtains
for her. Halep held her serve in the last game and marched into the final eight of the tournament.
She is scheduled to play against the top seed Yanina Wickmayer in the quarters.
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