Halep in line for No. 1 rank again
Print Edition
SIMONA Halep moved to within a victory of the No. 1 ranking.
The second-ranked Halep needed just 54 minutes to cruise past Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday in the Western & Southern Open semifinals in Mason, Ohio, and can displace Karolina Pliskova as the top of the ranking with a victory over Garbine Muguruza the final.
The fourth-ranked Muguruza reached her first W&S final with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over defending champion Pliskova.
The men’s final will feature two first-timers. Grigor Dimitrov outlasted John Isner 7-6 (4), 7-6 (10) in the first semifinal. Nick Kyrgios beat David Ferrer 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4).
Halep, seeking her first No. 1 ranking, has yet to drop a set in the tournament and appears to be peaking at just the right time. “I think I played my best match on hardcourt so far,” said Halep, who can become the first Romanian woman to be ranked No. 1. “It felt great. I moved very well today. From the first point, I felt like I was going to play good tennis.”
Halep has already lost twice this year playing for the top ranking, falling in the French Open final against Jelena Ostapenko and the Wimbledon quarterfinal against Johanna Konta, each time after taking the first set.
The final will be the first on American soil for Muguruza, who lost to Pliskova in last year’s W&S semifinals after losing to Serena Williams in the 2015 finals. The Spaniard had lost six straight matches against Pliskova since winning their first in 2013.
“I was very precise with my shots,” said Muguruza, who is 2-1 in her career against Halep, though the two haven’t played each other since 2015. “I wanted to be more aggressive and take my shots. I felt pretty good out there — under control. Everything went my way.”
Muguruza won when Pliskova sailed a forehand long on the fifth match point. Pliskova, who played part of one match and all of another on Friday after rain forced postponements on Thursday, had 28 unforced errors to Muguruza’s 13.
Muguruza was coming off playing the tournament’s longest match, a 2-hour, 45-minute three-set win over Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday. That followed a 2-hour, 18-minute win over Madison Keys on Thursday, when she fought off three match points.
The 11th-ranked Dimitrov, who lost in the last year’s semifinal to eventual champion Marin Cilic, had just one double fault and finished with nine unforced errors to No. 19 Isner’s 28 in the 2-hour, 3-minute match. The Bulgarian will play Kyrgios, who knocked out second-ranked Rafael Nadal in a Friday quarterfinal, and ousted Ferrer in the night match.
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