Aug 11, 2018; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Simona Halep of Romania celebrates as she wins against Ashleigh Barty of Australia (not pictured) during the Rogers Cup tennis tournament at Stade IGA. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
August 11, 2018
(Reuters) – World number one Simona Halep breezed into the Rogers Cup final with a 6-4 6-1 semi-final victory over Australian Ashleigh Barty in Montreal on Saturday.
Romanian Halep, the 2016 Rogers Cup champion, will meet the winner of the late semi-final between defending champion Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens for the title on Sunday.
Top-seeded Halep won four of the match’s first five games, and broke Barty twice before the 22-year-old Australian registered her first, and lone, break in the sixth game. She held serve for the remainder of the set.
The second set went much quicker with Halep winning seven of the last eight games.
The timing of the match, in the afternoon, had upset Halep after her Friday evening quarter-final win.
“If you look at the schedule, I think I’m the only one person and player who has the worst schedule during the week,” the French Open champion told the Montreal Gazette.
“My opponent has already six hours at the hotel resting, and I just finished the match and I’m doing now these (interviews),” Halep said at 9 p.m. local time (0100 GMT).
“I feel like today (Friday) I should have played second match in the night, and also tomorrow (Saturday) at 6 (p.m.), not at 1.”
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
