Simona Halep has defeated Madison Keys in straight sets, sealing a 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 victory, to win the women’s final of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
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The other semi-final will pit 10th-seeded American Madison Keys against unseeded Slovakian Kristina Kucova.
Kerber and Halep will meet in the semifinals on Saturday.
Prediction: Halep in three sets. Simona Halep now improves to a 4-2 record against Angelique Kerber, including winning both of their singles matches for 2016.
Halep, who struggled on serve much of the first set, played an impressive tiebreak to seal the opening set, spurring her on to a comprehensive second set to seal the crown. I did it and I thought it’s a great win for me. I was calm. Serving really good. “I had, I can say, bad memories from previous year that I had to finish the match and to stop it, so I am happy that I could win”.
“I don’t know why I served so well”. I just tried to be more aggressive.
On Friday, Kerber was completely dominant on return, breaking the 19-year-old Kasatkina’s serve a whopping seven times in eight chances and more than making up for the three service breaks she suffered in a 6-2, 6-2 victory, reports Efe.
There were more empty seats than usual for a semifinal on centre court, but a large contingent of flag-waving Romanian fans turned out to back Halep. Halep was unable to close the deal a year ago when she became ill in the third set, handing the title to unseeded Belinda Bencic.
The Romanian also won the titles in Bucharest and Madrid earlier this season, and she now has 14 career titles.
“She didn’t miss in the first set”, said Halep. “I couldn’t resist at that rhythm”. As anyone knows, I can not hit stronger than her because she’s very strong and it’s impossible for my height and for my body. I think there were some times when I maybe could have taken a step back and hit a safer ball.
The market makes the Romanian the strong favourite going into this one, and it’s no real surprise given the level of tennis that she’s been playing this past week.
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“I’m exhausted”, she added with a smile. She won $497,700 while Keys took home $241,840. But the grass is different, way different than hard court. “I was just going for some shots too early”. “No expectations. Just go in there and to fight for it”.
