Reuters
Romania’s Simona Halep reacts during her fourth round match against Poland’s Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
Reuters
Romania’s Simona Halep reacts during her fourth round match against Poland’s Iga Swiatek REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
After leading a successful campaign, Simona Halep finished the 2020 season as the World No.2. The Romanian played some incredible tennis throughout the season and made some terrific records. In an amazing stat, she is way ahead of her fellow WTA players at the end of the year.
Halep had the best return game win percentage in WTA in 2020. This highlights that the World No.2 didn’t just serve well but had answers to almost all her opponent’s shots.
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Now that's a career-best percentage by @Simona_Halep 👏#GameSetStat | @SAPSports pic.twitter.com/WDUgHIFtXE
— wta (@WTA) November 30, 2020
In the 26 matches that she played in the year, she managed to win 51.4% of the return games. This is actually stunning, as she didn’t give any chance to her opponents to gain any sort of momentum. She broke almost after every two games, mostly because of her brilliant skills of returning the serve of the opponent effectively. Interestingly, it was also her career-best return game win percentage so far as well.
The second on the list is 19-year-old Iga Swiatek, who defeated Halep at the French Open 2020 and went on to win the Slam. She had a return game win percentage of 50.3% and behind her is Patricia Maria Tig with 48.7%.
Simona Halep in the season 2020
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Romania’s Simona Halep as she celebrates winning the final with the trophy after Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova retired from the match after sustaining an injury Riccardo Antimiani/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Although Halep didn’t win any Grand Slam title in 2020, she had a pretty impressive year. She managed to reach the semis of the Australian Open 2020, but lost to Garbine Muguruza there. Then, she didn’t take part in the US Open 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was after the Australian Open that Halep really showed her strong character. She won the Dubai Championship, Prague Open, and then the Italian Open 2020 in a row to consolidate her spot at the second position. What was more even more exciting for her was that she took revenge on Muguruza by defeating her in the semis of the Italian Open 2020.
However, it was the French Open 2020 where the young Iga Swiatek defeated the World No.2 in straight sets. She didn’t play any tournament after that and decided to call off her season.
Halep will be returning back to the court at the Australian Open 2021. Fans certainly expect her to deliver there and add the third Grand Slam title to her golden hat.
