Saturday, August 18, 2018

Halep and Bertens to play for Cincinnati title

photos by Daniel Ward




Tomorrow at 2 p.m., world number 1 Simona Halep will try for the third time to win the singles title at the Western and Southern Open. Standing in her way is Kiki Bertens, whose game has been on fire on every surface all season.

Halep holds a 3-1 record against the Dutchwoman, but the Kiki Bertens of 2018 is not the Kiki Bertens of even a year ago. Always a fierce competitor on clay, Bertens has turned into an exceptionally fierce competitor on all surfaces. By the same token, Halep, the 2018 French Open champion, has now fully embraced her number 1 status, and is playing superior tennis.

Bertens has been knocking off top 10 players left and right. Can she knock off the top one, or will Halep be too much for her?

Here are the players' paths to the final:

SIMONA HALEP (1)
round 1--bye
round 2--def. Ajla Tomljanovic
round 3--def. Ashleigh Barty (16)
quarterfinals--def. Lesia Tsurenko
semifinals--def. Aryna Sabalenka

KIKI BERTENS
round 1--def. CoCo Vandeweghe
round 2--def. Caroline Wozniacki (2)
round 23-def. Anett Kontaveit
quarterfinals--def. Elina Svitolina (5)
semifinals--def. Petra Kvitova (8)
at

2 comments:

  1. sunnynineAugust 18, 2018 at 11:29 PM

    it is difficult to ignore the confidence halep has that is exploding through the atmosphere to the sky.she is doing what i have been wanting someone to do, that is, to become no 1 and have it inspire.
    bertens has reached new heights quickly. it might be too fast of a transformation, even it has she worked on it all tear. but after defeating kvitova 2X and taking her to a crazy wild 3 set at madrid, she will have the confidence to face the no 1.

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  2. DianeAugust 19, 2018 at 9:13 AM

    I think she will, too, and kt’s nice to see all that confidence going on!

    ReplyDelete