Romania's Halep advances to the semi-finals of the Miami Open 2015 WTA tennis tournament

Romania's tennis player Simona Halep, currently the world's number three, on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women's singles event of the 5,381,235-US-dollar Miami Open 2015 WTA tennis tournament as she defeated US Sloane Stephens on Wednesday, 6-1, 7-5.

Photo credit: (c) Silviu MATEI / AGERPRES PHOTO

Halep, 23, won in one hour and 15 minutes and in the semi-finals she will meet US Serena Williams, currently world's number one player who defeated German Sabine Lisicki (No. 27), 1-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.

Simona started off excellently against Stephens, who is 22 and the world's number 45, building quickly a 3-0 lead after in the first game she had to fend off two break balls. The US player won a game 3-1, but Halep regrouped and ended the game in just 25 minutes.

After a break at the beginning of the second set and a quick 3-0 lead, Halep looked like she could wrap up in less than one hour, but Stephens changed tactics, with Halep losing her tempo, making quite many mistakes and offering the American player a chance to bounce back. Stephens, a former world's number 11 in October 2013, won four consecutive games, after which Halep regrouped and managed to win a very important game when tied 5-5 with Stephens. That break was the decisive development as afterward Halep cruised to victory, defeating the American player 7-5.

Halep did not make any double faults, which is quite unusual for her, won 17 second return points to Stephen's 8, with the ratio of unforced errors standing at 26-30.

Simona and Stephens, 22, had already met four times and were tied 2-2. Halep was the winner of their first meet in the women's singles 1st round of the 2012 edition of the Barcelona Open 6-4, 6-4; Stephens won the next two,...