Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza to meet in Australian Open semi-finals
Halep beats Anett Kontaveit while Muguruza overcomes Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Winner of semi-final will play Ashleigh Barty or Sofia Kenin in final
Wednesday 29 January 2020 07:57, UK
Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza will meet for a place in the Australian Open final after both winning their quarter-final clashes in straight sets.
Wimbledon champion Halep needed only 53 minutes to sweep aside Anett Kontaveit 6-1 6-1 and seal a place in the Australian Open semi-finals for the second time in three years.
Muguruza, who is unseeded at a major for the first time since 2014, beat 30th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 6-3 to reach the last four in Melbourne for the first time.
Muguruza and Halep have both held the No 1 ranking and each has won two major titles, but none on hard courts.
Halep was relentless against Kontaveit as an 11-game winning streak took the match away from her Estonian rival.
In the second set, Halep won the longest rally of the match - a 25-shot exchange - and then served an ace on the way to 5-0 lead.
Halep reached the final in 2018, losing in three sets to Caroline Wozniacki, a result she attributes to winning the French Open that year and her second major title at Wimbledon last year.
Muruguza is back in the last four at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2018 French Open, when she lost to eventual champion Halep.
The Spaniard was ill at the start of the tournament and lost her first set 0-6 before recovering to beat US qualifier Shelby Rogers in three sets
She took a little more than 90 minutes to beat Pavlyuchenkova, with both players struggling with their serves with the sun shining brightly at one end.
The loss dropped Pavlyuchenkova to 0-6 in quarter-finals at majors; she has entered 49 Slams without reaching the final four once.
Ashleigh Barty and Sofia Kenin will contest the other semi-final.
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