And then, from 7-7 on, Halep rose a little higher. After squandering a 5-3 lead and two match points, she gestured angrily toward her coach, Darren Cahill, until he finally had to tell her to just get on with it. By that stage, the match had become a referendum on Halep’s ability to close out a big match. A referendum on whether, after squandering a lead in the French Open final in 2017, she could avoid squandering another one here.
At the start of 2018, Halep said she was determined to be more “courageous” in these situations. This time, rather than let her frustration distract her, she channeled it into a ruthlessly aggressive game—she would finish with 50 winners. From the first swing of a rally to the last, Halep pounded the ball with a controlled fury and put Kerber on her heels. Kerber held off the Halep storm for as long as she could, and she saved one more match point at 7-8, but she couldn’t save a second.
“It’s my dream to win a Grand Slam title,” Halep said after this victory, as she looked forward to a final with Caroline Wozniacki two days later. “If it’s not going to happen Saturday, I will stay strong, and I will keep thinking and dreaming for others.”
It didn’t happen that Saturday, but Halep kept dreaming, and eventually fulfilled that dream. She knew that if she could survive Kerber in this classic, she could survive anything.