It was a very tough match for Halep who faced very strong opposition from Viktorija Golubic. Ultimately Halep prevailed 6-2 5-7 6-4 in a match where the serving player had a lot of trouble. We saw 16 losses of serve in total which is absolutely unbelievable and at times Halep was not convinced she can win the match.
She admitted as much after it saying:
“It was really difficult, I have to admit. I didn't really trust that I can win this match but I fought to the end and I'm very proud of this because in the past I was working a lot on this."
As noted above, Halep was able to pull through with sheer force and willpower. Halep also credited her opponent admitting that she was really inspired by her effort saying:
“She played unbelievably, she was fighting to the end. All the credit to her for this beautiful match. I'm really happy that I could be a little bit stronger in the end and win this match. It means a lot.”
Asked what happened in the match where seemingly nothing went her way, Halep said:
“I felt like nothing was working today… I fought with myself a lot today. It was difficult to control my emotions but she put me in this situation, she put pressure on myself. It was really tough to deal with, but if you want to win, you (can’t) give up so I did this today and I'm really happy about it.”