Simona Halep became the first player to advance to the semifinals of the 2020 Internazionali BNL d’Italia, when her opponent Yulia Putintseva retired early in the second set.
The top-seeded Halep looked to be on a way to a routine victory over the world No.30 Putintseva, as she comfortably won the first set 6-2 and went 2-0 up in the second, when her Kazakh opponent, who received treatment on her lower back in-between sets, decided that she couldn’t go on.
Right after the match, Halep called her coach Darren Cahill and her team to come to the court and do some more hitting. Chair umpire Marija Cicak joked: “Do you want me to stay too?”
The world No.2 Halep is now on a 12-match winning streak. The Romanian’s semifinal opponent will be Garbine Muguruza.
