Former champion Simona Halep’s revival continued as she reached the Wimbledon semi-finals with another rapid win over American Amanda Anisimova.
Romania’s Halep, seeded 16th, was close to quitting the sport last year because of injury but the 2019 champion is now one more win from another SW19 final.
Halep, 30, beat 20th seed Anisimova 6-2 6-4 in one hour and three minutes. The two-time Grand Slam champion will play Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, who beat Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.
“It’s great to be back in the semi-finals, I’m very emotional right now,” said Halep. “I’m playing the best tennis since I won here. I’m building that confidence back and it is good right now.”
Halep, who won her first major title at the 2018 French Open, has breezed through her opening five matches at the All England Club, not dropping a set and spending less than six hours on court.
A routine victory was stalled when Anisimova, who looked despondent from the early stages and was given sympathetic backing on Centre Court, claimed one of two breaks back for 5-3 in the second set.
After holding serve, the 20-year-old then had three more break points at 0-40 before mistakes started to creep back into her game.
Halep eventually took care of her service game to reach her first major semi-final since the 2020 Australian Open.
“At love-40 I needed my serve and everything was good as it finished well,” she added.
