The simplicity of Simona Halep’s thoughts, feelings and intentions as she stared down her 4th and 5th match points of the last fortnight revealed much. “I try to hit the ball,” she said. “Not to be scared that I am two match balls down. And I think I played pretty well those balls. I was not afraid of losing, so maybe that's why I was – I won those balls, and then I got the confidence back that I'm still alive and I can do it.”

Really, there’s an argument that Halep should not have ever been in that situation. The Romanian started her first Australian Open semi-final lights out, pure instinct guiding her senses. She tore to a 5-0 lead executing every last aspect of her game to perfection. She insisted on not only chasing every ball down, but then, right at the end of her range, on changing directions down the line, pummeling forehand and backhand winners from impossible positions. She pounded the ball, absolutely destroying the Kerber serve, but she also served extremely well herself.

While Halep was resplendent, Kerber was anything but. The German arrived in the semi-finals with an aura radiating around her being. She was not only back; she was better. Her confidence had not only recovered, but there seemed to be something different, something edgier. She seemed to finally embody the ruthlessness of a champion, which wasn’t even the case as she performed brilliantly throughout 2016 but found her killer instinct missing in some of the finals she lost.

But Kerber arrived at the courts to find that, after four weeks of competition, 15 matches in 25 days, her condition was finally waning. She was flat, fatigued. By the second set, her legs failed, and she struggled to power her legs into her serve. In long rallies, her feet occasionally came to a standstill, but still, she fought, and her sparing moments of aggression were reserved for precisely when her back harbored up against the wall. She fought to 4-4, she rattled Halep, throwing in a return dropshot on game point, then ran away with the set.

–

In a way, Halep’s victory was a microcosm of her entire 2017. Throughout her last year, more than anyone who has ever finished a season number one, Halep’s year was about failure. She failed countless times - she failed in her attempts to win Roland Garros, she failed in the multiple times she neared the number one ranking only for her mind to restrict to fall short in heartbreaking defeats. People expected the failures to take her, the Roland Garros defeat to be the end of her but her responses were so good.

By failing, Halep seemed to learn that failure isn’t that bad. She was affected by it in the moment, but she didn’t let it leave a permanent negative effect on her. As devastating as her French Open defeat was, it didn’t scupper her year and derail her success. She returned very shortly after the French Open and reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Her failures to capture the #1 ranking only spurred her to play more. When she arrived at the US Open and asked about the question of the ranking on the line, she smiled mischievously. She lost in the first round. Her mental weaknesses may have been laid bare, but her ability, her willingness to bounce back was strength.

Against Kerber, Halep fell out of the match at times, she lost patience with herself and hit too many errors. She failed, but she was resilient enough to continue. Down double match point, she didn’t merely “hit” the ball. She stepped in and took the racquet from Kerber’s hand; she saved the first by stepping far into the court and scudding an inside-out backhand, then sprayed a forehand to the opposite corner. She smiled. “Yeah, I think helped me a little bit to relax and to take it like it is,” she said. “I didn't put pressure on myself, and I think it was a good timing.”

On the second match point, she stepped in with backhand and forced the error. She lived dangerously, and most importantly, for once, she wasn’t afraid to.