The Sunday Mail
As we reach the halfway point of this tournament, there are already more heavyweight collisions unfolding than you might find in an asteroid field.
Prime among them is tomorrow’s meeting between the reigning French Open champion Simona Halep and the GOAT — or greatest of all time — Serena Williams.
You have to feel for Halep, whose No 1 ranking should by rights have earned her a comfortable passage into the second week.
Instead she had to contest sweaty three-setters against two fine opponents in Kaia Kanepi and Sofia Kenin.
And then, thanks to anomalies on the rankings ladder and an apparently vengeful God, she collected back-to-back appointments with the Williams sisters.
Halep managed to dispose of Venus with relative ease yesterday, dashing to a 6-2, 6-3 victory in just 77 minutes.
But Serena is the bigger obstacle.
Should Halep win on Monday, she would become only the third player to eliminate both sisters in consecutive rounds of a major, after a pair of legendary names in Martina Hingis and Justine Henin.
“Definitely this is the toughest draw I’ve ever had,” said Halep.
“(Against Serena) it’s a bit different because I only beat her once in my life (in nine attempts), so I cannot say much about this match.
“Just that it’s going to be huge challenge for me,” she said.
As the woman at the top of the rankings ladder, Halep was also asked whether she really felt like the superior player in this match-up.
She answered in the negative.
“For sure she’s the best player in the world because she won so many grand slams.
“She’s been a lot on No 1.
“I cannot compare my results to hers.
“But in this moment, I am confident that I am in this position, and I’m positive about it.”
Williams herself had come through the interview room much earlier, after an almost casual 6-2, 6-1 demolition of 18-year-old Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.
She showed her softer side at the conclusion of the match, responding warmly when the devastated Yastremska burst into tears on the way to the net for the traditional handshake.
“Don’t cry, you did really well,” she reassured Yastremska, who was still in utero when Williams won her first major title in New York in 1999.
Later, Williams told reporters that she sympathised with her opponent .
“I remember one time against Venus at Wimbledon as I was walking to the net I started bawling. I couldn’t help it.
“As she was walking towards the net,” Williams added, “I could tell she was quite upset. I kind of liked that.
“It shows she wasn’t just there to play a good match, she was there to win.
“That really broke my heart.”
At this stage, the Halep-Venus match had not concluded.
Serena, unsurprisingly, said that she would prefer her sister to win.
But she also indicated that, should the result go the other way, she would relish a crack at sororal revenge.
“I haven’t played the world No 1 since I’ve been back [from maternity leave],” said Williams.
“I honestly would love to face her.” — Telegraph
