Simona Halep – Kirsten Flipkens 7-5, 6-4, in the 2nd round at Wimbledon. Exciting moment at the end of the game

Simona Halep (30 years old, 18th WTA place) qualified for the third round at Wimbledon , after defeating the Belgian Kirsten Flipkens (36 years old, 190th WTA place), score 7-5, 6-4 .

Kirsten Flipkens, in the last singles match of her career

The match lasted one hour and 25 minutes and was tougher than expected for Simona Halep, who had won her previous five encounters with Kirsten Flipkens without dropping a set.

Simona Halep struggled especially on serve, but came back from 2-5 down in the first set and 1-4 down in the second set.

The Romanian managed 20 winning shots and committed 17 unforced errors.

At the end of the game, Kirsten Flipkens burst into tears. It was the last singles career match for the 36-year-old Belgian.

Flipkens was applauded for a long time by both Simona Halep and the spectators. Kirsten knelt on court number 2 at Wimbledon and kissed the turf.
As a sign of respect, Simona Halep left the court at the same time as Kirsten Flipkens, applauding the Belgian again.

Kirsten Flipkens was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2013. She has one WTA singles title (Quebec 2012) and five doubles trophies.

Simona Halep – Magdalena Frech, in the 3rd round at Wimbledon

In the third round at Wimbledon, Simona Halep will face the Polish Magdalena Frech (24 years old, 92nd WTA).

Frech has so far beaten Camila Giorgi (Italy, 27th WTA) 7-6, 6-1 and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Slovakia, 84th WTA) 6-4, 6-4 at Wimbledon .

Simona Halep and Magdalena Frech faced each other twice in the WTA circuit, and the Romanian won each time. In 2020, on the clay in Prague, Halep won 6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinals. In 2022, in the first round at the Australian Open, Simona prevailed 6-4, 6-3.