Simona Halep continues to smash layers, pundits and opponents. (New Haven). This time, Wozniacki gets owned.

Ensured that glory girl Wozza, couldn't just turn up

Yesterday's coverage of the Simona Halep-Caroline Wozniacki match was nothing short of disrespectful to the Romanian star. First and foremost, bookies had Wozniacki a clear favourite and apparently all she had to do was turn up and turn over Halep. Wozniacki is of course 'high profile', and, as we were reminded about on every other point, a former world number one and grand slam finalist.

But what year are we in now? Hmm? Last time I checked it was 2013 not 2010.

Sam Smith was simply drooling over Wozniacki. The main points were that she possesses a great forehand, a great backhand, serves well and is one of the best competitors in women's tennis. All this was said before Halep handed Wozniacki's ass on a plate and before the commentators spent three seconds summarizing Halep as basically a Grand Slam bottler. It was painful to hear.

Anybody that has followed women's tennis (and no, not JUST the Slams) knows that Halep is now a formidable opponent. The life was getting sucked right from Caroline last night during that first set as Halep exchanged ground strokes, big serves and deft squash shots in and around the net. To put it bluntly, apart from the opening stanza of the second set which Halep does have some work to do when she temporarily lets her opponent off the hook, Halep owned Wozniacki.

At one stage Wozniacki was getting the dressing down off her old man and looked thoroughly dejected and deflated after a string of winners from Halep, who doesn't "have the hitting power".....said the expert pundits before the match. Make no mistake about it this was a beating; and Wozniacki knows it. Before her, a string of other opponents now know it. The beauty of Halep is that she is winning tennis matches in a variety of ways. She has come back numerous times from a set down, she has also come back numerous times from a set and two breaks down in the second. Coming from behind is not a new concept, but last night she led the way from start to finish adding just one more variation to her game. Even her serve looked much more solid.

On critical points Halep found the answers. She also has a typical Romanican feistiness about her and let out some great emotion once or twice even when winning. This is fabulous stuff. It shows that she is making the transition from being a respected tricky opponent to a top ten player. I said as much in May. I stand by what I said. And I think Halep is fast gaining the respect of every women on the tour.

The only one she hasn't got the respect from is probably Williams. Williams beat her up in the first set of their recent match, but this happens. Halep made a much better fist of the second (losing it 6-4) which shows that she can at least get back into a match after a first set drubbing. Halep is strong mentally, and she knows her place in the pecking order. She knows that her best and Serena's will see the American through 9 times out of 10, but week by week, Halep is becoming more and more confident and it's only a matter of time before players like herself and Stephens start challenging for more honours more consistently.

She now has the final against Kvitova (another one who just has to turn up say the experts) and then onto the US Open.