Halep blitzes Badosa to return to Wimbledon quarterfinals, faces Anisimova

With the loss of just three games, former champion Simona Halep rolled into the quarterfinals at Wimbledon for a fifth time.

Halep, seeded No.16, returned to Centre Court on Monday for the first time since she held the Venus Rosewater Dish aloft in 2019, and dominated Spanish No.4 seed Paula Badosa from start to finish in a 6-1, 6-2 triumph. She hasn't lost a set in the fortnight and will face No.20 seed Amanda Anisimova in the quarterfinals.

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It was Halep's second lopsided result against Badosa this year. At the Mutua Madrid Open in May, Halep lost just four games against the then-No.2 seed on her home turf in a 6-3, 6-1 Round 2 victory. 

Tale of the tape: The first match between two Top 20 seeds at this Championships went squarely in favor of the former World No.1 Halep broke Badosa's serve five times in just 59 minutes on court, never lost her own and hit 17 winners to just nine unforced errors. 

Badosa, playing another match on Centre Court after dispatching two-time former champion Petra Kvitova in Round 3, by contrast, never got going. She hit 20 unforced errors to just seven winners. 

Nerves? None of 'em: Though it was her first match on Centre Court in more than 1,000 days, Halep was in fact back on the lawns on Sunday to celebrate the court's 100th anniversary, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other great champions.

That, she said, was what really got her heart racing.

"Actually, I was more nervous yesterday than today," she said with a smile in her on-court interview. "It's very special to be back I missed a lot, to play in Wimbledon. Three years was a lot. ... It's always a pleasure to come back and to have the chance to play on Centre Court."

Amanda Anisimova ends Harmony Tan's run to make first Wimbledon quarter

Twentieth seed Amanda Anisimova powered past France's Harmony Tan 6-2, 6-3 to book a place in her first Wimbledon quarterfinal and first major quarterfinal since her run to the 2019 Roland Garros semifinals. 

The last American woman in the draw, Anisimova is now an impressive 29-9 on the season, the fourth-best record on the Hologic WTA Tour behind Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur and Simona Halep. She backed up her tough three-set win over French Open finalist Coco Gauff by playing disciplined, powerful tennis to keep Tan at bay. 

How the match was won: Tan, 24, was just the third woman to beat Serena Williams in the first two rounds of a major and advance to the second week. She needed just 51 minutes to get past Katie Boulter in the previous round but could not get her unpredictable game going in the face of Anisimova's big striking. 

The 20-year-old American overpowered Tan's crafty all-court game in 74 minutes, striking 28 winners to 18 unforced errors in the match. Tan struck nine winners and 12 unforced errors, generating just two break points in the match. Anisimova coolly saved both to go unbroken on the day. 

Anisimova's Wimbledon breakthrough: Prior to this year, Wimbledon was the only Slam at which Anisimova had yet to reach the third round. Her best result was a second-round showing in 2019. 

"Going into this I didn't think this was possible," Anisimova said. "It's a dream come true right now.

"I think when I was 17, I didn't really appreciate getting to the semifinals as much as I probably should. It only soaked in I think like a year later, understanding what that was, how much it actually meant to me."

"Yeah, just having over a year of not very good results, it really affects you. It motivates me a lot to train harder and just work harder. But when you have losses every week in early rounds, it's very hard to find that motivation. I just kept going. It just took longer than I thought it would. That's why it means so much to me now for having a great year this year."

Anisimova eyeing a 2019 redux: Anisimova enjoyed her breakout run at a major at the 2019 French Open. Then 17, Anisimova notched wins over Tan and Halep en route to her first major semifinal.

Now, Anisimova will face Halep with a Slam semifinal is on the line. In 2019, Anisimova snapped Halep's 11-match Roland Garros win streak. On Wednesday, she'll look to snap the 2019 champion's 11-match Wimbledon win streak. 

"I just played her last week," Anisimova, said referring to her 6-2, 6-1 loss to Halep in the Bad Homburg quarterfinals. "She's really tough to play on grass, for sure. Last week she was playing very well. It was a tough match for me. I kind of felt my wrist a bit in that match so I wasn't really playing to the full of my abilities.

"I know this will be a really tough match coming up, but I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure we'll both put up a really good fight."