World number one Simona Halep 'almost dead' after surviving marathon match with Lauren Davis

The Romanian and the American fought toe-to-toe in Rod Laver Arena for three and three-quarter hours before Halep won 4-6, 6-4, 15-13

Simona Halep survived a marathon contest with Lauren Davis to advance (AFP)

Simona Halep said she felt “almost dead” at the end but the world No 1’s Australian Open hopes are still alive after she survived a remarkable third-round encounter with Lauren Davis here on Saturday.

The Romanian and the American fought toe-to-toe in Rod Laver Arena for three and three-quarter hours before Halep won 4-6, 6-4, 15-13, having saved three match points and failed to serve out for victory three times.

The final set alone lasted two hours and 22 minutes. With the temperature a very comfortable 23C, both players were grateful that there was no repeat of the previous day’s gruelling conditions.

“I gave everything I had,” Halep said afterwards. “I'm really proud that I could stay there and win it. It was not easy at all. She played great.”

It was indeed a remarkable performance by Davis, a 24-year-old American who had lost in the first round of every Grand Slam tournament last year. Having played the match of her life, the world No 76 said: “I left all that I had out there on the court.”

Both women finished the match in physical pain. Halep, who had started to cramp, was still feeling the ankle injury which she suffered in the first round, while Davis twice took medical time-outs for treatment to bleeding toe-nails.

Halep agreed that this was the sort of match she would not have won in the past. “I think I’m much stronger now,” she said. “I was a little bit frustrated because of the leg. I felt the pain all match, but I didn’t give up. For sure I’m stronger mentally.”

She added: “I think in the past I wouldn’t have fought that hard. Maybe when she had the match points, maybe I would have lost it. But now I have improved in that way.”

The match equalled the tournament record for the longest women’s singles in terms of the number of games played - Chanda Rubin’s 6-4, 2-6, 16-14 victory over Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1996 also featured 48 games – but it was short of the longest match in terms of time. In 2011 Francesca Schiavone beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 after four hours and 44 minutes.

Halep is still alive after a taxing encounter (AFP)

“We were both fighting our hearts out and every point was just super long,” Davis said. “I got to the point where I was so tired where I just told myself to swing and move.”

Halep paid credit to Davis. “She was moving really well and her backhand short-cross was amazing,” the Romanian said. “She was very aggressive. She defends very well, and she also comes to the net. She's a great player. Today she played amazing.”

The slightly-built Davis stands just 5ft 2in tall – “Finally I had a shorter opponent than me,” the 5ft 6in Halep said afterwards - but times the ball superbly, particularly on her backhand. She loves to go for her shots, as the match statistics demonstrated: Davis hit 52 winners and made 73 unforced errors, compared with Halep’s figures of 27 and 39 respectively.

However, the American’s greatest strengths are her speed and athleticism. There are few players on the tour who are as quick around the court and she repeatedly chased down big shots which many other players would not have reached. It is rare for Halep, one of the finest athletes on the women’s tour, to find herself outrun.

Davis came from a break down to win the opening set, but when Halep took the second and went 3-1 up in the decider it seemed that she had averted a crisis. However, Davis won the next three games and from 4-4 fortunes swung wildly.

Davis pushed the world number one all the way (AFP)

There were four successive breaks of serve as Halep failed to serve out for the match at 5-4 and 6-5. At 7-7 Halep broke once more but was again unable to close out the match. With the Romanian leading 8-7 and 30-30, Davis played a superb point, chasing down a series of wide balls before forcing Halep into an error, and proceeded to win the game with a thumping forehand.

When Halep served at 8-9 and 9-10 Davis repeatedly went within two points of victory, but the world No 1 kept digging herself out of trouble. At 10-11, however, Halep went 0-40 down after three superb points by Davis, but once again the world No 1 refused to buckle and saved three match points.

Davis took a medical time-out at 11-11 because of a toenail problem and in the following game it was the American’s turn to save five break points. Davis had another medical time-out three games later because of a bleeding toenail on her other foot, though Halep said later that the delay helped her to regroup.

At 13-13, nevertheless, Halep started to cramp. It appeared to be a question of who might last the distance better – and the answer was the world No 1. Halep broke to lead 14-13 and in the following game she recovered from 15-30 down to go 40-30 up. On her first match point a Davis forehand went wide.

Halep was so exhausted that she barely celebrated. In her post-match interview she said she felt “almost dead” and added: “I feel that my muscles are gone. I can’t feel my ankle any more.”

Halep will now play Naomi Osaka in the next round (AFP)

She said later that she had been unable to practise between matches because of her ankle injury. “After this match I think tomorrow is going to be worse, but I just push myself,” she said.

Asked if she thought she would be fit for her next match on Monday against Naomi Osaka, Halep said: “For sure I will go on court, but I don't know how it's going to be. The doctor said that the risk is there because it's an injury, but I believe that it's going to be fine.”

Osaka, the world No 72, ended the run of Australia’s great hope, Ashleigh Barty. The 20-year-old Japanese, who hits the ball harder than most, won 6-4, 6-2, hitting 12 aces along the way.

Angelique Kerber beat Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 to become the only former or reigning Grand Slam champion to reach the fourth round. The 2016 winner here brushed aside the 2008 champion in convincing fashion to claim her 12th successive victory since the start of the year.


 Kerber knocked Sharapova out in straight sets 
 (AFP)

Sharapova, playing here for the first time since serving a 15-month suspension following a positive drugs test at this tournament in 2016, said: “She's a confident player at the moment. A lot of things I need to get better at and improve on.”

Madison Keys, the runner-up at last year’s US Open, reached the fourth round with her third successive straight-sets victory, beating Ana Bogdan 6-3, 6-4. Keys ended her 2017 season early, which enabled her to rest her left wrist, on which she had had surgery at the end of 2016.

“I finished the US Open and I was exhausted," she said. “As amazing as that run was, the combination of being exhausted from that and having a wrist that still wasn’t 100 percent, I just needed to kind of shut it down, calm down. Then I was really excited to start the new season.”

In the next round Keys will face Caroline Garcia, who beat the Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. The 24-year-old Frenchwoman is through to the last 16 here for the first time.

Karolina Pliskova, the No 6 seed, hit 31 winners, including 11 aces, to beat fellow her fellow Czech, Lucie Safarova 7-6, 7-5