Halep reaches Rogers Cup semifinals with comeback win over Kuznetsova

“My elbow is feeling much better”, said Kerber. “I feel exhausted. I gave it everything I had to win this title”. “Hopefully it will stay like this”.

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. The American, who upset Venus Williams in the third round, couldn’t make a shot in the second set against her Russian opponent, then seemed to make them all in the third. The 10th seed won 10 of the last 11 games, while only conceding nine points from her eight service games.

“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. Kucova, the world’s 121st-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.

Nevertheless, we’re backing the Romanian to come through and similarly to the Kerber clash, her rival will have her moments and this could very well be a battle that goes the distance with Halep eventually prevailing.

Three unforced errors were Wawrinka’s undoing in the first set, with a double fault robbing him of the advantage on serve, then a forehand way wide of the court – nearly into the stands – giving Nishikori the tiebreak set point.

Kerber is left-handed, and Halep swings with the right.

The former French Open finalist served for the first set at 5-4, but betrayed her cause with timid serves. “I think it’ll depend on the day”. “It was really nice to win today”. “We ve played a lot of good matches in the past”. I just completely lost my rhythm, and he was taking over control of my second serve, attacking it.

“I like being here in Montreal at lot”, said Halep, seeded fifth and set to jump to No. 3 in the world.

In last year’s final in Toronto, Halep retired in the third set with a heat-related illness, handing the win to unseeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

The ninth-seeded Kuznetsova’s frustration was evident on centre court when, after dominating the opening set, Halep turned the tables.

The German will hope the physical toll of the match – which lasted two hours and 15 minutes – will not cost her later in the tournament.

Halep called coach Darren Cahill onto the court during the match to feed her some game plan in the blustery conditions. “I knew I had to be strong on my legs”.

“I tried, I just wanted to be a little bit aggressive but I couldn’t”.

It was far from easy for the second seed, but Kerber got it done after a marathon effort against 17th seed Svitolina.