Late, 10th-seeded Madison Keys of the United States beat 16th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russian Federation 7-6 (7-3), 1-6, 6-0.
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“I like being here in Montreal at lot”, said fifth-seeded Halep, whose world ranking will rise to third with the win.
Five days after ending a drought of more than two years by winning an ATP event in Washington, Monfils took his hot form with him north of the border. I lean Halep in three sets, which was what happened in the round of 16 at Wimbledon earlier this year.
The Serbian admitted he was lucky to advance after saving seven of eight break points.
Konta fended off a match point on serve in the eighth game but she was unable to deny Kucova a spot in the semis. “I’m obviously not going to say it’s a bad week just because I lost one match”. I must be pleased with the way I hung in there. “That’s all.” In the afternoon session, Swiss Wawrinka advanced with a comprehensive 6-1 6-3 victory over big-serving South African Kevin Anderson.
“It means a lot, it was really nice to win today”, Halep told ESPN in a courtside interview.
“I was trying to focus on my game because it was the first time I met her and it worked”. “I’m sure the crowd will support both of us so I’m really looking forward to playing her tomorrow”.
She has won nine consecutive matches including a victory at her home tournament two weeks ago. After Williams rallied to tie the match, Keys found her serve in the third set, ending the match with her 12th ace.
In last year’s title match she retired in the third set because of illness to hand the title to unseeded Swiss Belinda Bencic. Halep took some revenge on Angelique Kerber for Kerber’s defeat of Halep at Wimbledon.
“There’s only one person who is going to walk away and be completely happy with this week”, said Keys. I think I played a pretty good tournament.
The American Madison Keys will square off against Kristina Kucova in the second showdown at Uniprix’s centre court.
Halap took a rest break and was right back out on the court with compatriot Monica Niculescu to win their doubles semifinal 6-3, 2-6 (10-6) against the Slovakian duo of Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik.
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This time around, Halep went one step further, taking the match on her first time of asking to seal a first Coupe Rogers title 7-6, 6-3 and a first place spot in the Emirates Airline US Open Series ahead of the final major of the season, the US Open, later this summer.
