Top 10 Matches of 2015, No. 6: Simona Finds the Power

What do we do now that the 2015 season is over and tennis is in its all-too-brief December recess? Go back and watch the best matches of the year, of course. Over the next two weeks, I’ll count down my 10 favorite contests, accompanied by video highlights, of this season.

No. 10: The Day the Circus Came to Town—Kyrgios d. Federer, Madrid
No. 9: New York Knockdown—Azarenka d. Kerber, U.S. Open
No. 8: Cup Runneth Over, and Over, and Over—Mayer d. Souza, Davis Cup
No. 7: Stan Mans Up—Wawrinka d. Djokovic, Roland Garros
No. 6: Simona Finds the Power—Halep d. Azarenka, U.S. Open
No. 5: Sending the Open Into Orbit—Fognini d. Nadal, U.S. Open
No. 4: Richard the...Lion-Hearted?—Gasquet d. Wawrinka, Wimbledon
No. 3: The Serena & Simona Show—Williams d. Halep, Miami
*No. 2: Vincanity—Vinci d. Williams, U.S. Open

No. 1: Fierce and Fiercer—Williams d. Azarenka, Wimbledon<em>*</em>

Most observers at this year’s U.S. Open seemed to agree that Victoria Azarenka’s third-round win over Angelique Kerber was the match of the women’s event. There’s no question it was a classic, and I have it at No. 9 on my list of the year’s 10 best. But I thought Azarenka’s loss two rounds later, to Simona Halep, was even better.

Halep’s 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win offered mesmerizing rallies, a decisive contrast in style and personality, and a mighty psychological struggle on one end of the court. Could Halep stand up to the taller and stronger Azarenka, a woman she had never beaten; the Romanian was the better player on the day, but could she win? Those questions were the subtext of this quarterfinal, and it took Halep two hours and 40 minutes to answer them.

Here’s a look back at TENNIS.com's sixth-best match of 2015.

—This quarterfinal offered a contrast not so much in style as it did in size. At 6’0”, Azarenka has six inches on Halep, but if feels like more. Most tennis players appear taller in person than they do on TV, and that’s definitely true of Vika. Mentally and physically, Halep often looks like she’s playing uphill against her top-ranked opponents. It’s not an easy climb: Halep calls herself a “fighter girl,” but as she admitted, she didn’t always keep fighting when things didn’t go her way in 2015. This time she did.

—Yet even against Azarenka, when she was playing her best tennis, Halep still struggled to make herself believe that she could turn that good play into a victory. In the second set, she got close, but couldn’t push herself across the finish line. In the third, she squandered one chance to end it on Azarenka’s serve, before closing it out on her own.

“I don’t know how I had the power to win this match,” Halep said later.

“I’m not tall. I have inside power. Always it’s a big challenge for me. Every point is a big challenge. So I do everything I can.”

While “fighter girl” is Halep’s catchphrase, “power” is another common theme. It’s understandable, because while she had the speed, the timing, and the ball-striking, a little extra oomph now and then would be nice.

—Halep, unlike Azarenka, can’t simply lean into a shot and hit a winner; she succeeds either with combinations of shots, or by changing direction with the ball. You can see from these highlights how brilliantly she did both on this day. It’s hard to think of another player who hits each shot, to each corner, from any position as naturally as Halep. Crosscourt, down the line, inside out, inside in, from the doubles alley: She’s equally adept at all of these shots, and she uses them all against Azarenka.

“I was a little bit surprised by the pace of her ball,” Azarenka said of Halep afterward.

The downside for Halep is that, when you can’t rely on raw power, it’s tough to sustain that level of shotmaking. She makes a lot of hard shots look easy, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hard.

—If Halep tries to play up, Azarenka often seems to be trying to calm herself down. Slow starts are common for her, and she endured another one here. It’s as if Vika needs time to gather herself, to channel her competitiveness and focus on the task at hand. She eventually succeeds in doing that against Halep, and judging from these highlights, she didn’t play a bad match. Azarenka is rightfully known for her two-handed backhand, but watching this clip made me notice the set-up on her forehand. She’s always right there, with feet set, body balanced, and racquet ready to pummel the ball.

—Rain delayed play at the start of the third set, though the only evidence of it in this clip is the change in Azarenka’s outfit—she left a very cool pair of yellow shoes behind for an even cooler pair of pink ones. Otherwise, the break came at exactly the wrong moment for Vika, who had just taken the lead for the first time. Halep huddled with her coach, Darren Cahill, during the break; they decided that she had moved too far back in the court in the second set, and that she should move up again in the third.

“Thank god for the raining,” Halep said with a grin later.

—By the third set, Halep is not only trying to match Azarenka’s power levels, she’s giving her noise levels a run for their money as well. Halep lets out a piercing “Come on!!!” after a winner at 3-3, and an uncontrollable shriek of joy after Vika’s last forehand sails wide.

—“I just have to do everything I did in the first set and get this one,” Halep told herself down the stretch, “because it’s made for me.”

The match was made for Halep, who knew she was on her game. But sometimes that knowledge isn’t easy to handle when you’re facing a quality player. You know you should win, and you know you might not have this opportunity against this opponent again. For those of us who have had that feeling, watching Halep live up to her level of play made for one of the season’s most memorable and satisfying afternoons. We knew just where that last shriek was coming from.