Romanian tennis player Simona Halep battled hard to end the winning streak of Emirates Airline US Open Series frontrunner Angelique Kerber and reach the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, wtatennis.com informs.
Kerber, who won her fourth Premier-level title of the year at the Bank Of The West Classic in Stanford last week and extended her winning streak to seven matches in a row here, pushed Halep hard – she not only toughed out the 58-minute second set, but she was also leading in the third set, 3-2.
But the No.2-seeded Halep held serve to make it 3-all and after the two traded breaks to get to 4-all she raced through the last two games at love to close out the No.13-seeded Kerber, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
“She was amazing. She has a lot of confidence – Stanford was a good tournament for her,” Halep said.
“I think I played better than yesterday. I feel more confident now. My serve didn’t work very well, but I returned well. So I’m really happy that I could win this match. I was fighting until the end.”
With the crowd chanting her name, she ripped a big ace out wide to close out the match.
“I knew I had to win it, because at the end I was so tired I couldn’t move anymore,” Halep said.
“I served well in the last game – and I finished the match with an ace. I remember the match before I did the same thing, knowing I had to finish the point very early, and I’m happy I did it again.”
The Romanian is now through to the quarterfinals of the Premier 5-level Rogers Cup for the first time.
Next up for Halep is the No.6 seed and defending Rogers Cup champion, Agnieszka Radwanska, who rallied from 4-2 down in the third set to edge giant-killing Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
The Polish trailblazer has now won seven matches in a row at the Rogers Cup, going 5-0 to win the title last year (beating former No.1s Victoria Azarenka and Venus Williams en route) and 2-0 this year.
Radwanska leads Halep in their head-to-head series, 4-3, though Halep has won three of their last four meetings. This will be the first time the two former World No.2s will play each other this year.
In the previous round Simona Halep qualified after defeating Serbian Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.