Melbourne: Simona Halep said she was close to playing “100 per cent” despite her aching body giving her sleepless nights as she reached the Australian Open last eight on Monday.
Halep has spent a shade under eight hours on court in four matches so far, including an epic 3hr 44min against Lauren Davis on Saturday which the Romanian won 15-13 in the final set.
“First day after the (Davis) match was pretty OK,” the top seed told reporters after a 6-3, 6-2 victory over unseeded Naomi Osaka of Japan in 81 minutes.
“Last night was really tough. I couldn’t sleep. I had pain everywhere.
“But I slept before the match two hours, and worked perfect, perfect hours. I was, like, fresh after that. I felt good.”
Former champion Angelique Kerber, meanwhile, says she will take huge confidence from fighting back to reach the quarter-finals. The German came through a severe examination in the fourth round, dropping a set for the first time in the tournament and having to serve to save the match against Taiwan’s tenacious Hsieh Su-wei before winning 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Halep, who last made it this far in 2015, said she had more confidence in her troublesome ankle that she rolled in her first-round match.
“Ankle is still sore. But, you know, I’m not thinking about that any more,” she said. “I saw that I can win matches with it.
“Maybe I get used to the pain and I’m not thinking that much that something can happen. Just taking every point.
“I’m trying to play 100 per cent, which I was close today, to run normal and to run a lot. But I still feel it. It’s there, but I can handle it.”
The big-hitting Osaka had her chances, notably in the fifth game of the first set when she squandered five break points on the Halep serve.
The Romanian compounded Osaka’s disappointment immediately with a break of her own and said it was a turning point.
“Yeah, after I took that game and those points, I felt more confident. I felt that now I can push the pedal and just go through the match,” she said.
“That gives me a lot of confidence that I can turn around matches,” said Kerber, who routed Maria Sharapova in the third round.
The former doubles world number one negated the pace of Kerber’s power game with a delightful mixture of drop shots, lobs and finessed groundstrokes that had the Rod Laver Arena crowd enraptured.
It took 2hr 8min of encapsulating tennis for Kerber finally to unlock the mystery of Hsieh’s unpredictable play.
“She plays winners and had answers for every single shot I had in the first two sets,” said a relieved Kerber, who added her fitness had been vital.
“The key at the end was that I really could run forever. I was feeling that I was running from the first point until the last point.
“I think she played amazing match. I was trying everything, and she had always the better answer,” said Kerber, the two-time Grand Slam champion who won the Australian Open two years ago.
In the early stages Kerber was unable handle the variety of Hsieh who was bidding to reach her first singles quarter-final at this level, nine years after making the fourth round on debut at Melbourne Park.
The Taiwanese veteran, 32, was looking for a third big-name scalp in a row after knocking out Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza in round two and then former world number two Agnieszka Radwanska.
Kerber dropped the first set and was clinging on towards the end of the second, serving to save the match at 4-5 and then having to dig even deeper.
“I mean, it was 5-5, 40-15 for her, and I was just trying to not think about the score,” said Kerber, who won the next four points to finally turn the tide.
It knocked the wind out of Hsieh’s sails and she immediately surrendered a break at the start of the third.
