Halep headed to Rogers Cup semi against Svitolina

The 27-year-old from Denmark outlasted top-ranked Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 in a rain-delayed quarterfinal on Friday at the Rogers Cup.

“I hope it gives me a lot of confidence”, Haase said of his performance for the week. The Spaniard won the first set 6-4 but went on to lose the next two sets 4-6 3-6.

“I’m just very happy that it’s finished”, Svitolina said.

In the deciding set, Wozniacki broke at love to pull even at 4-4. She ended up losing the six WTA final in 2017.

Svitolina caused an upset, dispatching the second seed 6-1, 6-1 after just 56 minutes in Toronto Saturday. They had to wait out four rain delays and spent almost three hours on court. But she played really smart today and, yeah, used my pace to her advantage. “Played against great players, I beat them, and it’s just something really incredible and I am very, very exhausted”, Svitolina said.

By virtue of the win, Wozniacki is primed to make her sixth championship appearance this season.

Considering her record in finals this year, it would be wise for young tennis players to pay attention to Elina Svitolina’s mental strategy. Wozniacki is there too but she will have to defend last year’s semifinal at the US Open. It was longer rallies, so normally you have the opportunity to have more unforced errors. Wozniacki won 6-2 6-3. Svitolina proceeded to win six straight sets on Saturday and Sunday to take the winner’s cheque of $501,975. “Of course I’m a little bit exhausted”, Svitolina said.

Although Shapovalov pushed the No. 4 seed throughout the first set, Zverev came up clutch and secured a break for 5-4 before he consolidated to take the opening stanza 6-4.

Pliskova never recovered from that first set loss. Rogers Cup champion in 2010, Wozniacki had an aggressive gameplan from the start, racing out to a 5-1 lead and then overcoming a brief wobble before wrapping up the first set.

“Obviously I had to go for it a bit more”, Wozniacki said. “I’m competing good, my mental part is strong, I’m playing good tennis”. The American veteran is a former runner-up in Canada, but she had no answers to Svitolina’s blistering groundstrokes.

Wozniacki has reached five finals this season and now holds the No. 6 position. Now she’s healthy and back on court playing well.

“I’m not old but I’ve been on tour for many years”, she said. I didn’t know how my body would react.

“I really enjoyed every moment that I spent here”. Practically, she raced past four top 10 players which is a huge deal.

Top-seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina were to face Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok and Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova in the other doubles semifinal.