Halep fires Australian Open warning with Shenzhen title
SHENZHEN: World No 1 Simona Halep fired a warning to her Australian Open rivals on Saturday, beating Katerina Siniakova in three sets to win the Shenzhen Open. The Romanian saw off the reigning champion from the Czech Republic 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 in 72 roller-coaster minutes in rain-hit southern China.
The 26-year-old Halep is guaranteed top seeding for the Australian Open, the season’s first Grand Slam, which begins in Melbourne on January 15. This was her 16th WTA title but the first since reaching the top of the world rankings in October.
The match was delayed by five hours because of rain in Shenzhen and had to be moved indoors before play could begin.
“It’s been a great week for me as I’ve been playing very well. It was a difficult match and (Siniakova) played very well,” said Halep. “I was less nervous and just tried to enjoy the moment, even if we are playing indoors.
“It’s not easy but we did our job and I’m happy that I could win the first title of the year.”
Halep had earlier provided a heart-warming moment when she made use of the severe rain delay by exchanging a few shots with a young boy who had been plucked from the sodden crowd.
To applause and cheers, Halep shook the boy’s hand afterwards and planted a kiss on his cheek.
When the final against sixthseeded Siniakova finally got under way, Halep was not nearly so generous, powering through the first set in less than 30 min.
KYRGIOS TAKES TITLE
BRISBANE: Controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios produced two sets of superb tennis to see off top seed Grigor Dimitrov on Saturday and reach the final of the Brisbane International. Kyrgios came back from losing the first set to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 and set up a decider against American Ryan Harrison.
Harrison had earlier ended the fairytale run of 18-year-old wildcard Alex de Minaur 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in two hours and 37 minutes.
Kyrgios admitted after his quarter-final win over Alexandr Dolgopolov that he sometimes turns his talent on and off “like a tap”. And as he has done all week, he started slowly against defending champ Dimitrov, losing the first set to a single break of serve.
But he came out firing in the second set, breaking Dimitrov twice and taking just 30 minutes to level the match.
Kyrgios served superbly in the second and third sets, winning over 80 per cent of points on his first serve and facing just one break point. Dimitrov, on the other hand, has struggled with his serve all week and Kyrgios was able to take full advantage, with his returns keeping the Bulgarian under constant pressure.
SVITOLINA TRIUMPHS
BRISBANE: Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina laid down her marker as a serious contender for the Australian Open when she demolished Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1 in the Brisbane International final on Saturday.
Svitolina won five titles on the WTA Tour last year, more than any other woman. She ended the year ranked sixth in the world, but will climb two places when the new rankings are released on Monday and will go into the year’s first Grand Slam as the fourth seed.