Simona Halep advances past Zhang in Toronto

Simona Halep played her first match in Toronto and it was a good one overall as she defeated Zhang 6-4 6-2.

The Romanian player had a disappointing early exit in Washington losing to Kalinskaya but she rebounded pretty well in Toronto. Zhang was always going to struggle in this matchup because Halep is so dominating from the baseline that it's really hard to stay in rallies. Your best bet is to attack in a similar fashion but that has never been Zhang's game.

Halep jumped out quickly to a 3-0 lead but dropped her serve to give one of the breaks back. A couple of games later saw Zhang pull the 2nd break back and Halep was facing a very tricky situation of possibly trailing 4-5. She didn't as she was able to break Zhang once more to close out the set 6-4.

It happened at the perfect time for Halep not to allow things to go out of control. Her main struggle once more was the serve as it was rather inconsistent and she was unable to dominate the rallies well with her 2nd serve. The 2nd set was more impressive from Halep as she was more consistent with everything, especially the serve.

It opened a new dimension for her and she was able to dominate most rallies. A 6-2 finish in the 2nd set sends Halep into the next round.