Halep had to grind out a 7-6(9) 4-6 7-5 win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova earlier in the day, completing a match that began Wednesday but was halted due to rain.
Browsing: Simona Halep
The 36-year-old American climbed 153 places to 28th despite losing Saturday’s final at the All England Club to German Angelique Kerber, Williams’s fourth tournament since giving birth to her daughter 10 months ago.
Halep saw a match point saved during a tense third set and, despite being broken seven times, it was the Taiwanese world No 48 who edged through 3-6 6-4 7-5.
The Romanian took to her twitter handle @simona_halep on Wednesday to announce her withdrawal from the event beginning from June 22 to June 30.
The top seed won 3-6 6-4 6-1 in just over two hours to hoist the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen in front of a packed centre court.
The 26-year-old has pedigree on clay, knows what it feels like to step out to contest the title match against American Sloane Stephens and holds a 5-2 winning record over her.
The Romanian, who will also keep hold of the world number one ranking as a result of the victory, made a flying start.
Three of the last six women’s events at Roland Garros have been won by either Muguruza or Sharapova, but it was the 2016 champion who eased to a 6-2 6-1 success on Wednesday.
The predicted battle royal between the two former champions never materialised on a muggy Court Philippe Chatrier as Spaniard Muguruza dominated from start to finish.
Halep started slowly, spraying shots wide as she lost the first four games of the match against the number 12 seed who hit her early groundstrokes with lethal accuracy.
Romanian Halep, twice a runner-up at Roland Garros, started slowly but once she found her groove, there was nothing the 16th seed could do to avoid a one-sided defeat.
World number one Halep came through a tough three-set semi-final against Maria Sharapova on Saturday and was well off the pace, failing to coax even a single break point opportunity the entire match.
After losing a scrappy first set the 29-year-old from Poland roared 4-0 ahead in the second, dropping just four points in the process, on her way to drawing level.
The Japanese went all the way in last week’s BNP Paribas Open, defeating Maria Sharapova and world number one Simona Halep along the way, and she added Williams’ scalp in supreme style.
Halep breezed through her fourth round match with a 7-5, 6-1 win over China’s Wang Qiang and eighth seed Venus Williams faced a stern test from Anastasija Sevastova but held on for a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory.
The Romanian runner-up was in hospital over-night and was treated for around four hours before being released on Sunday morning, according to reports
The Dane, who will take over as world number one, burst into tears as she secured the title against the battling Romanian top seed on her first match point of a gruelling, epic encounter
A wildly unpredictable match veered one way, then the other, before the Romanian ended Kerber’s resistance on her fourth match point in a spellbinding deciding set on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Romanian world number one, still without a grand slam title, trailed 3-0, but battened down the hatches to reel off the next nine games on her way to a first Melbourne semi-final.
The second Red Group match of the day was a completely one-sided affair when Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki blew away Elina Svitolina 6-2 6-0 in less than an hour.