Halep to face Stephens in final

Romanian is 6-2 against opponent, including win in 2018 French Open final

MONTREAL— Simona Halep’s scheduling dispute with tournament organizers looked to have no effect on her play.

The top seed and the world’s top-ranked player cruised past Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 6-1 on Saturday in a women’s Rogers Cup semifinal. She advanced to Sunday’s final against third-seeded Sloane Stephens, who downed the error-prone fifth-seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3. Svitolina won the Rogers Cup last year when it was held in Toronto.

The night before, Halep blasted the Women’s Tennis Association for giving her difficult match times, saying she got the worst schedule in the 56-player event and that “this happens almost every tournament.”

But playing on only 15 hours rest, Halep was in control from the outset against 15th-seeded Barty, eliminating the Australian in one hour, 11 minutes.

“I was very sore when I woke up,” Halep said. “During the match, it’s not easy to run so much but, you know, I just tried to focus on what I have to play and, to make it a little bit easier, which I did in the end, was to finish it early.”

She had nothing to add to her scheduling dispute, which saw her play four matches in three days after a night session was postponed due to rain.

“I think I talked enough about it,” she said.

Halep has reached the Rogers Cup final for the third time in four years. She won the last time it was held in Montreal in 2016. Halep is 6-2 against Stephens in her career, including a win in this year’s French Open final, and has won their last five meetings.

Barty made up for her singles loss with a semifinal win in doubles, teaming with Demi Schuurs to beat Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke 7-5, 6-3.