Stat of the Day: Simona Halep has now won 13 of her last 14 matches

Two-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 Simona Halep has quietly been building up quite a head of steam over the last few months, and her 6-2, 6-0 victory over Brazilian No. 1 Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday night was just another indicator.

Halep has now won seven matches in a row to start 2022, and she’s won 13 of her last 14 dating back to the last week of October, when she reached the final of the Transylvania Open on home soil in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

HALEP SINCE LAST WEEK OF OCTOBER: 13-1
d. Ruse in 1st Rd of Transylvania Open, 6-1 6-2
d. Gracheva in 2nd Rd of Transylvania Open, 6-4 6-2
d. Cristian in QFs of Transylvania Open, 6-1 6-1
d. Kostyuk in SFs of Transylvania Open, 6-0 6-1
l. to Kontaveit in F of Transylvania Open, 6-2 6-3
d. Sasnovich in 2nd Rd of Linz, 7-5 6-3
d. Paolini in QFs of Linz, 4-6 7-5 6-0
d. Aiava in 1st Rd of Melbourne Summer Set 1, 6-4 6-2
d. Ruse in 2nd Rd of Melbourne Summer Set 1, 6-2 6-1
d. Golubic in QFs of Melbourne Summer Set 1, 6-2 5-7 6-4
d. Zheng in SFs of Melbourne Summer Set 1, 6-3 6-2
d. Kudermetova in F of Melbourne Summer Set 1, 6-2 6-3
d. Frech in 1st Rd of Australian Open, 6-4 6-3
d. Haddad Maia in 2nd Rd of Australian Open, 6-2 6-0

She had to pull out of Linz before her semifinal match with a knee injury.

Halep has also won 20 of 24 matches since last August, a stretch that began after she lost the first match of her comeback against Danielle Collins in Montreal. Before that she had been off the tour for three months, missing both Roland Garros and her title defense at Wimbledon, due to a calf injury.