Simona Halep snapped a personal two-match losing streak against Angelique Kerber to return to the Rogers Cup final for the second consecutive year. The Romanian now owns titles in Madrid, Bucharest, and Montreal this year as the 24-year-old looks ahead to the final major of the season, the US Open, in late August. “I was trying to come back and play again, trying to play my game, thinking about every single point actually, and not thinking that I lost the first set 6-0”. “I did it and it was a great win for me against her”.
Advertisement
The Australian Open victor will face fifth-seeded Simona Halep of Romania, a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victor over No. 9 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russian Federation. I don’t know why. “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. I think there were some times when I maybe could have taken a step back and hit a safer ball. But I couldn’t manage that moment, and I can say I gave up a little bit mentally. The doubles world no. 14 Makarova and doubles world no. 8 Vesnina win their first championship of the year with a 6-3, 7(7)-6(5) sweep of their Romanian rivals.
The other semifinal will feature Madison Keys and Kristina Kucova.
After seeing off Kuznetsova, Halep said: “It was very tough, I feel really exhausted now, she played very well and she’s very strong so I knew it was going to be like this”. Was not easy”, said Halep, who commented also on the final won: “It was not my best tennis because I couldn’t play my best tennis.
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 tried just to put the ball away from her, just to make her run. Kucova, the world’s 112th-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.
Halep quickly wrestled the initiative in the second set, a stunning lob and two poor forehand errors from Keys handing her a 2-0 lead.
“It’s going to be a tough match”, Keys said about Pavlyuchenkova.
Advertisement
Halep outlasted 10th-seeded Keys in a messy first set and then dominated the second in a one-hour, 16-minute hardcourt match in warm, sunny weather.
