Halep survives first match since Wimbledon win, and an inspired Brady

After her turbulent, exciting, who-knows-what’s-coming-next, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) win over Jennifer Brady in Toronto on Wednesday, Simona Halep was asked how it felt to get back on court after not playing for two weeks.

“It felt,” Halep answered with a deadpan smile, “like I didn’t play for two weeks.”

Halep had a good reason to take a rest, of course. She was celebrating the performance of her life, a 56-minute win over Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final. Following that up nearly a month later, on a different continent and a different surface, was never going to be easy. The fact that Halep had to do it against Brady, a big-hitting American who had already won two qualifying matches on these courts, and blown out Kiki Mladenovic in the first round, made her transition back to the tour that much more difficult. Getting through this match required Halep to make two last-second escapes, one at the end of the second set, and another at the end of the third.

In that sense, Halep should be happy just to have survived Brady’s onslaught. The 24-year-old Pennsylvania native and former UCLA standout is ranked just 76th, but she’s part of a burgeoning American women’s contingent that seems to be pushing each other upward at the moment. She’s also exactly the kind of player that a roadrunner like Halep would dread playing early in a tournament, before she has found her rhythm. Brady is tall, rangy, and athletic; she can bail herself out with her serve; and she tears into her forehand with as much pace and spin as anyone on tour.

For stretches of this match, Brady didn’t let Halep play. She won the first set convincingly, and made two valiant comebacks: one from 3-5 down in the second set, and another from 0-4 down in the third. But both times, just when she was on the verge of blasting right past Halep, Brady blinked.

After reeling off five straight games to take a 5-4 lead in the third, Brady went up 15-30 on Halep’s serve—it looked like the Romanian was ready to throw in the towel and try her luck next week in Cincinnati. But Brady, who has never beaten a Top 10 player, couldn’t beat this one, either. She made three straight forehand errors to squander her golden opportunity.

Still, with her game, this won’t be Brady's last chance. In the middle of the third set, when things looked bleak, her coach, Stephen Huss, said he wanted one thing from her: “Just compete your a-- off,” he said. She did.

As for Halep, I was curious whether she could stay as quietly, calmly intense as she had at Wimbledon, even when things weren’t going well. For the most part, she succeeded; there were no blow-ups today. But by the third set, I wondered if letting off a little steam might have helped. At times, Halep’s calm bordered on lethargy today.

But she’s moving on. When you’re coming off a Wimbledon win and two weeks off, you’ll take a win any way you can get it.