Simona Halep left shaking as she sets up Australian Open final against Caroline Wozniacki

Marching on: Simona Halep
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Paul Newman25 January 2018

Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki will meet here on Saturday in their first appearances in an Australian Open Final.

For the 26-year-old Romanian and 27-year-old Dane it will be the chance to claim a maiden Grand Slam title after twice suffering the agony of finishing runner-up.

Halep, who booked her place in the final with a dramatic 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 victory over Angelique Kerber, was beaten by Maria Sharapova and Jelena Ostapenko respectively in the French Open finals of 2014 and 2017.

Wozniacki, who secured her meeting with Halep by beating Elise Mertens 6-3, 7-6, lost both her previous Grand Slam finals at the

US Open, to Kim Clijsters in 2009 and to Serena Williams five years later.

Both women have learned to cope with the jibes about being world No1 without having a Grand Slam title.

Wozniacki, the current No2, spent 67 weeks at the top, the last of them six years ago, while Halep has led the world order since last October.

The world No1 ranking has sat uneasily on the shoulders of some players but Halep has coped admirably with the pressures, as she has shown with two of her victories here.

Having beaten Lauren Davis 15-13 in the final set after nearly four hours in the third round, she won another remarkable physical battle here to beat Kerber, who has made an outstanding start to the year.

Kerber, who won this Slam two years ago, went into the semi-final on a 10‑match winning streak after winning the title in Sydney in her only warm‑up tournament.

Halep, nevertheless, had a similar record, having won in Shenzhen.

Both women are superb athletes and played a succession of breath-taking rallies. Halep raced into a 5-0 lead in just 13 minutes but Kerber came back strongly to take the second set.

In Pictures | Australian Open Tennis 2018

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The decider was packed with drama. Kerber saved two match points at 4-5 before Halep saved two when the German served for the match at 6-5.

Having saved another match point at 7-8, Kerber finally succumbed on Halep’s fourth match point when she missed a backhand.

“It definitely was very tough,” Halep said.

“I’m shaking, I’m very emotional. She’s a very tough opponent. I’m really glad that I could resist and win this match.”

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