Though many of them have been close, Halep had won her last five meetings against Jankovic, and the No.3-seeded Romanian kept the pattern alive on Saturday night, cruising to a 6-1, 6-2 victory.
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The 2008 French Open champion led the top seed by a set and a break and was also up 2-0 in the final set, but dropped the last six games to surrender 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. She survived a mid-tournament scare against Ana Ivanovic, forced to dig herself out of a set and a break deficit.
Britain’s third seed Andy Murray rallied after losing the first set to Richard Gasquet but eventually turned the tide for a 4-6 6-1 6-4 win.
Federer remained ideal in Cincinnati finals, winning an unprecedented seventh championship on Sunday while denying Novak Djokovic the one title that always eludes him. Djokovic covets the title – the only one he needs to become the first to win all nine of the current ATP Masters events.
Serena Williams has beaten Simona Halep in two closely-fought sets to secure the Cincinnati Open title for the fifth time in her career.
Williams will be bidding for history at the US Open as she attempts to complete a rare calendar-year Grand Slam in singles.
Halep won New Haven in 2013, which at the time was the first Premier-level title of her career.
Moments of resilience from Halep included fending off two break points to hold serve at 4-3 in the second and the magnificent forehand victor that was a near double-liner on the first match point.
“Usually there isn’t a point where I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this, ‘ but today there definitely was”, Williams said.
She will play the victor of 14 seed Elina Svitolina and sixth-seed Lucie Safarova. The Grand Slam committee later fines Williams a record $82,500 and places her on probation for the next two years.
Wawrinka, who needed three tiebreakers and 2 hours, 37 minutes to get past 7-foot Ivo Karlovic on Thursday, committed 27 unforced errors to eight for Djokovic.
Djokovic can’t struggle with his game against Federer and expect to win. The elbow is better, and so was Djokovic’s serve – 85 percent accuracy during the first set.
Said Federer: “I really hope you can win here someday”.
“(My performance) came at the right time against one of my biggest rivals and the guy I lost to last time we played in the finals of the French Open“, Djokovic said.
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Halep, the No. 3-ranked player in the world, will be replaced by lucky loser Lesia Tsurenko, the highest ranked player to lose in the 48-player Connecticut Open qualifying tournament.
