Halep, who beat second seed Angelique Kerber over three sets in her semi-final, twice failed to serve out for the opening set, in which she was broken four times, but also won on Keys’ serve four times before running out a comfortable victor in the tie-break.
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Keys struggled to deal with her opponent’s serve as Halep sealed the 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 victory in one hour 16 minutes after the 21-year-old American dumped a forehand into the net.
“She gets a lot of balls back”, said Keys. “I had to stick with it to win this one”, Djokovic said.
“I have to improve more in this way and I am just trying to enjoy more and more and to give everything I have to win”.
“I wish today went a little bit differently”.
“I tried just to keep the ball away from her and to make her run”.
Victory will take her from fifth to third in the world rankings, and secures a shot at Madison Keys or tournament surprise package Kristina Kucova in Sunday’s final.
For Keys, it is a chance to land a third title, and her first tour title on hard courts and with her solid serving and powerful ground-strokes, she can expect to disrupt any kind of rhythm Halep will be looking for.
World number five Halep, of Romania, has now won 23 of her last 26 matches, a stretch that has included lifting titles in Madrid, Bucharest and now Montreal.
“In the third set I said that I have to calm down, to be more positive because I was very negative at the changeover”, Halep said. There were some times when I maybe could have taken a step back and hit a safer ball. “I was just going for some shots too early”.
The Romanian has two finals to contest on Sunday – having reached the doubles final with compatriot Monica Niculescu, but after retiring in last year’s final in Toronto, there is an element of unfinished business.
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The match was effectively decided in the first set tiebreak after both players had produced nervy, erratic tennis over the first 12 games. I don’t think he has it here. I think I played a pretty good tournament. Djokovic reached the final by dismantling Citi Open champion Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2.
