Kerber needed exactly one hour to oust Kasatkina from her first Rogers Cup appearance, although the 19-year-old had a good week beating 13th seeded Samantha Stosur and seventh seeded Italian Roberta Vinci.
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Halep got to the semi-finals for a second year in a row. I did it and I thought it’s a great win for me.
Simona Halep wins her first Canadian Masters final over Madison Keys in her second consecutive championship round appearance.
“I think I’m still recovering from the second set”, Pavlyuchenkova said.
The first set saw Halep breaking serve and Keys breaking back, four times total, as they finally reached a tiebreak.
Sunday’s win wasn’t pretty as she hit just four winners against Keys, an American playing in her first career hardcourt tournament final.
“I’m exhausted”, a smiling Halep told the media after capturing her third title of the year, and now on a 10-match winning streak. Kucova, the world’s 121st-ranked player, had knocked off two seeded players as well as local favourite Eugenie Bouchard en route to the semifinal in her career-best performance. The pair then each took holds of serve for 2-all before the Romanian took the early lead with a break of her own to go up. Halep was unable to close the deal past year when she became ill in the third set, handing the title to unseeded Belinda Bencic. I was starting to press a little bit.
Angelique Kerber, of Germany, reacts during a play in her match with Simona Halep, of Romania, during women’s semifinal Rogers Cup tennis action, in Montreal on Saturday, July 30, 2016.
“I think I was very tight on my serve because I know she’s going to return very strong”, said Halep. In the end, I just wanted to be solid.
“I feel exhausted, I feel that I have no more power but it’s a nice feeling and I gave it everything to win this title”. Thank you for supporting me, I know it’s not always easy.
After a short rest, Halep was back on the court for the doubles final, but she and compatriot Monica Niculescu fell 6-3, 7-6 (5) to Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Visnina.
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In a set filled with service breaks, it was only fitting Halep and Keys began the match exchanging breaks, with both players looking slightly nervous early on.
