Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, 5th WRA, has won the WTA tournament in Montreal, with prizes amounting to USD 2,413,663 on Sunday after defeating in the final American tennis player Serena Williams7-6 (2) 6-3.
Simona Halep won her third title of 2016 with the victory at the Rogers Cup over No.10 seed Madison Keys, moving up to No.3 in the world and increasing her winning streak to 10 straight matches, wtatennis.com reports.
A week of winning took Halep into the finals of singles and doubles in Canada, but didn’t always have things her own way against the hard-hitting Keys, who took her to three sets just a few weeks ago at Wimbledon. Saving a pair of break points at 4-2 in the opening set, Keys broke back to level the set four times – including twice as Halep attempted to serve out the set – to force a tie-break after nearly 45 minutes of play.
The youngster recently became the first American to make her Top 10 debut since Serena Williams in 1999, but was ultimately undone by unforced errors in the Sudden Death, helping Halep expedite her lead and take the tie-break 7-2.
Winning the first six points of the second set, Halep broke in the second game and never looked back, overcoming a 0-30 deficit in the final game to clinch her first hardcourt title since the 2015 BNP Paribas Open.
Keys nonetheless returns to the Top 10 at No.9, and felt there were only positives to take from having reached her first career WTA final on hardcourt.
“There’s only one person who is going to walk away and be completely happy with this week,” she told press after the match. “You know, I’m obviously not going to say it’s a bad week just because I lost one match. I think I played really a pretty good tournament.
“I wish today went a little bit differently. Sometimes it happens. Just take the positives from that and move on.”
Meanwhile, Halep moves back up into the Top 3 after beginning the year at No.2 but falling as low as No.7 after suffering through tough Australian and Middle Eastern swings.
In the semi-finals Halep defeated Angelique Kerber in a thrilling three-set battle, 6-0, 3-6, 6-2. In the quarter-finals, Simona defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
In the doubles final, Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu were defeated by the Russian pair Ekaterina Makarova/Yelena Vesnina cu 6-3, 7-6 (5).