In one of the biggest upsets of the year, the unheralded and evergreen #HsiehSuwei stunned world number one and Roland Garros champion #SimonaHalep in the third round of the #Wimbledon Championships, putting up a flawless display of her unique tennis which utterly shocked the loud crowd out on Court No.1.
This was a high-quality contest between both grinders, but ultimately it was Halep’s fitness which brought her down as Hsieh produced an incredible comeback from 2-5 down in the deciding set to claim the biggest win of her career.
Halep was the favourite to mount yet another Major title run especially after her triumph in Paris but fell victim to Hsieh’s staggering playing style which has previously frustrated other top players like Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber in Australia. As a result, Hsieh earned just her third career top-10 win, and coincidentally all of them came at the Majors which shows how she is able to turn up to the occasion and live in the moment.
Although the statistics might show that Halep was the better player on the court, it was Hsieh who played some vintage tennis at the crucial moments which allowed her to steal the victory. Halep was looking to be aggressive — hitting 29 winners to 31 unforced errors but the low bounces on grass completely killed her momentum. Whereas, although Hsieh may have hit fewer winners (26) and more errors (36), she managed to force errors out of the rock-solid Halep game with some outrageous shot-making and net skills.
By virtue of this impressive win over the top-ranked player, Hsieh reached the fourth round and the second week of Wimbledon for the first time in her career. Halep blamed the defeat on her “unprofessionalism” from her as the world number one, stating that she failed to give it her all towards the end due to tiredness. “I was leading the match, I was up, and I couldn't finish it. I'm not hard. I'm just realistic and honest with myself. I accept that it was an unprofessional attitude from me today,” said Halep.
Halep storms to the first set
Five unforced errors in the opening game proved to be the bane for Hsieh as she failed to find the fast start against Halep, which would have been extremely useful. The Taiwanese was unable to get her game going and errors leaked from everywhere as the Romanian stole the first break of serve within a blink of an eye.
Surprisingly, the slow start only managed to spur Hsieh on; she was looking to be more aggressive than Halep, who could retreat into her defensive zone at times, and fired two winners to get onto the scoreboard. The series of breaks continued with Halep unable to consolidate her lead once more; this time double-faulting her way to a fourth consecutive break to start the match with.
Although the breaks kept coming — the quality of tennis did not experience a dip. Hsieh continued to dig for opportunities while Halep battled to retain her lead. She almost let a 40-0 lead at 3-2 slip past her and proceeded to finally claim the first hold of the day for a two-game advantage.
Hsieh was at a huge danger of falling behind by a large deficit — but she showed some nerves of steel as the underdog daringly charged towards the net for a volley winner to fend off a break point and stave off the challenge from Halep. Hsieh would rue a costly forehand unforced error committed on break point in the eighth game, as the world number one took advantage and tightly held on for a 5-3 lead.
It was too late for a comeback from Hsieh, as Halep was just too solid off the baseline and grabbed the opening frame 6-3 after 42 minutes of tense action.
Hsieh fights back from nowhere
Both players exchanged comfortable service holds to start the second set; a stark contrast as compared to the first set. Surprisingly, the first breakthrough went to Hsieh after she produced a breathtaking backhand down-the-line winner to claim the lead for the first time in the match.
Halep looked to close out the win in straight sets, though, as the determined look on her face instilled some fear in her opponent and applied the pressure on the latter. Several monstrous forehand winners from the Romanian was enough to seal the break back in the sixth game, and within a blink of an eye, Halep found herself leading 4-3 having rattled off three straight games.
Hsieh started to dictate play and this could be seen from her increasing winner count before Halep crumbled on the defence and was unable to control the proceedings. The world number 40 then comfortably served out the set to love, levelling the scores at one set all.
Hsieh completes the huge upset
Halep managed to rebound from the previous disappointment and looked on course to close out the win once more, this time after she broke serve to open a commanding 2-0 lead early in the decider. The situation looked dire for Hsieh, who required the patience and self-belief to produce the comeback.
The Romanian soon broke out to a three-game advantage while the match was gradually slipping away from Hsieh, who just could not do anything right within that time frame. However, just when it mattered, the underdog lived up to the occasion like she always did.
“With the 5-2 down, normally you feel like, Okay, you are close to finish the match, so you got run harder. You need to try to hit the ball little bit heavier. Simona, the best player, they going to smash you at this moment. I need to not going too much. Like first set, I was a little bit tight, tried too much, every ball was little bit off. I try to hang in there at 5-2,” Hsieh mentioned during her post-match press conference.
Hsieh saved a match point in some style — closing out a lengthy rally with a flawless backhand down-the-line which Halep could not find a return to. The world number one ran out of steam and Hsieh took complete control over the match, sealing the stunning upset after two-hours and 20-minutes under the scorching sun on Court No.1, but not after having to fend off multiple break points in the last game.
Halep was disappointed with her own play, or rather more particularly about how she handled the situation in the match. “The difficulty was bigger today because of her game. She played really well. She stayed there for every point. All the credit to her. Actually it was okay as a game. I just believe that I was not very positive on court. The match was very unprofessional for me. But I am too tired. I was too tired. I have pain everywhere.”
The secret to beating the top players, as told by Hsieh herself: “I just want to feel free and enjoy the match. You know anything can happen on the court. You don't have big chance to win, because they're very good. So all I want to do is just go on the court and hit the shot and run every point and enjoy it.”
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