‘Really wanted it’
Exhausted Halep digs deep to win Rogers Cup
MONTREAL — The final of the Rogers Cup women’s event was a matter of breaks, as in service breaks.
Top seed Simona Halep of Romania defeated thirdseeded American Sloane Stephens 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4 to win the Canadian Open title for the second time in three years.
Neither player was able to hold her serve on a consistent basis and 15 of the 30 service games resulted in breaks. Considering the way both players struggled with the serve throughout the twohour and 41-minute match, it was ironic that Halep would secure the victory with her fourth ace of the match.
“I really wanted it because I couldn’t finish the games before,” Halep said. “At 5-4, I said that I have to serve bigger. During the match, it was a little bit softer. I had a little bit of pain in my abs. It was tough to hit constant. In the last game I just wanted to hit it, so I was lucky to hit an ace at the match point.”
The final was the end of a gruelling week for Halep. She had to play two matches on Thursday because of rain the night before, had a night Friday and then an afternoon semifinal on Saturday.
Halep, who beat Stephens in the French Open final to cement her claim to the No. 1 ranking, was able to get through the week because she is stronger than she has been in the past.
“I get tired during the matches, but I have enough rhythm and also enough power in the muscles to stay there,” Halep said. “Then I think the serve is a bit better. Also my forehand is stronger. I can do much more with it. With the backhand, normally I want just to finish some points. I think everywhere I improved a little bit.
“Today I hit some dropshots, which I don’t normally do, but because I was too tired,” Halep said. “They were OK. I feel like I’m a stronger player in all the ways this year.”
Halep complained about the scheduling earlier in the week and had a suggestion for the future.
“I couldn’t believe that it’s over,” said Halep, who collapsed to the court after the final point. “This week, it’s been an amazing effort. Also I was really tired. I feel like these tournaments at this level, you have to have actually one day off between the matches. It’s really tough. It’s brutal, the effort for me. This week it was really tough.
It was raining. For everybody is a little bit tough. But I think it’s a good idea if this thing is going to be changed, just to have one day off between the matches. We will see in the future.
While the result was the same, Stephens said she felt better than she did when she lost to Halep at the French Open. That match also went three sets but Stephens faded in the third set and lost 6-1.
“In a final, you hope for matches like that, super competitive, high energy,” said Stephens. “I mean, there’s nothing more than you could hope for in a final. Obviously (it’s) upsetting that I didn’t win. But I think I got better today. I got better than the last final we played. Yeah, it’s disappointing, but I think this will help me moving forward, getting ready to go into Cincy and the U.S. Open. (I’m) just going to kind of take it all in, realize I did a good job this week, and I can be proud of myself for that.
“I wanted to play two hard sets. I played three hard sets today,” added Stephens. “It was better than I had hoped.”
Stephens reached the final by breezing through four matches without the loss of a set. In each of those matches, she jumped to an early lead but it was a different story Sunday. Halep broke Stephens in the third and fifth games to take a 4-1 lead. Stephens responded with two breaks of her own and she had two set points with Halep serving at 5-6 but she was unable to secure the break.
Halep double-faulted twice and made two unforced errors to fall behind 5-2 in the tiebreaker Stephens had two set points at 6-4 but Halep won four points in a row to win the set.
Stephens broke Halep three times to win the second set and Halep used three breaks to go ahead 5-2 in the third set.
Halep could have ended the match when she was serving at 5-2 but she doublefaulted at match point and Stephens picked up her second break of the set.
In the next game, Halep had two more match points when she went ahead 15-40 on Stephens’ serve. Halep sent a service return long and then Stephens stayed alive when she gambled on a rare foray to the net and hit a volley winner.
The win was worth $519,480 U.S. for Halep while Stephens earned $252,425.