Kerber, Halep set up Wimbledon rematch in Montreal

It was an wonderful atmosphere down there.

“She was playing more consistently than me the whole match”, said Kerber. ‘When I arrived here the first day, I went to that event, big event, for her. It motivated me a little bit. In last year’s title match she retired in the third set because of illness to hand the title to unseeded Swiss Belinda Bencic. She won $497,700 while Keys took home $241,840. Halep won her first set against Kerber 6-0 and seems highly motivated to put together back-to-back titles after just winning the Bucharest Open. Earlier in the week, she met Romanian gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci, who was in Montreal to commemorate her ideal 10 scores at the 1976 Olympics.

Keys is very unsafe when she plays her power game while not mixing in much unforced errors. “Although I’m already a bit exhausted but they help me through”. The 29-year-old Serbian star won the event that rotates between Toronto and Montreal in 2007, 2011 and 2012. It’s a nice thing for Romanians. “I’m happy that I could do it”.

“Every match we played against each other was really close”, said Kerber, 28, the reigning Australian Open champion.

Keys has been enjoying quite a purple patch of form – after reaching the Rome final she went on to win the Birmingham title and although many saw her as a dark horse at Wimbledon, she could well push Halep very hard.

Besides Halep, Romania has three other players in the top 100, namely Irina-Camelia Begu – 31st, Monica Niculescu – 56th, and Sorana Cirstea – 90th.

“I think I’m still recovering from the second set”, Pavlyuchenkova said.

“I’m obviously not going to say it’s a bad week just because I lost one match”.

“That was really the whole match”.

“She hits very strong”, Halep said. Then it was Halep making angry swings at the ground with her racquet after a shot into the net as Kerber held service for 4-3.

It was a strong week overall for Keys, who defeated sixth-seeded Venus Williams in the third round.

Halep thanked Canadian and Romanian fans for their support and congratulated Keys on her game. “I am dead, but I have a few days break, and I will be fresh against for Cincinnati”. Halep, the No. 5 seed was the finalist of the tournament past year, reports Efe.

Halep can become the first to win the singles and doubles in the same year since Martina Hingis in 2000.