Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep win Rogers Cup championships in different cities

Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep won the Rogers Cup singles titles on Sunday.

Nadal won his 80th ATP World Tour title — and spoiled Stefanos Tsitsipas' 20th birthday — in the ATP tournament at Toronto.

And top-ranked Halep outlasted third-ranked Sloane Stephens 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4 to win the WTA tournament at Montreal, her second.

The top-ranked Nadal beat the unseeded Greek upstart 6-2, 7-6 (4) for his fourth Rogers Cup crown and fifth victory of the year. He has 33 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles.

"If you told me this two weeks ago I would not have believed it," Nadal said. "It's a great way to start the hard-court season. Winning in Toronto is so important. You don't win Masters 1000s very often. It's a very important victory for me and I'm very happy."

The 32-year-old Spanish star also won the Rogers Cup in Toronto in 2008 and Montreal in 2005 and 2013. His previous four titles this year came on clay at the French Open, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome. He also beat Tsitsipas in in the Barcelona final.

Tsitsipas reached the final by becoming the youngest player to beat four straight top-10 players in an event since the ATP World Tour was established in 1990. He began the run against seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem, then knocked off No. 9 Novak Djokovic, No. 2 Alexander Zverev and No. 4 Kevin Anderson.

Halep, the 26-year-old Romanian star also won the hard-court event that rotates between Toronto and Montreal in 2016 in Montreal.

In a rematch of Halep's French Open final victory, she overcame Stephens in the match that had 15 service breaks. Halep has won her last six meetings with the 25-year-old American. Stephens, preparing for her U.S. Open title defense, is 0-8 against No. 1-ranked players. "I couldn't believe that it's over," Halep said. "I was really tired. I feel like these tournaments, at this level, you have to have one day off between the matches. It's really tough. It's brutal. This week it was really tough."

Halep won her third title of the year and 18th overall.

A large Romanian contingent waving their red and yellow flags chanted Halep's name between points.

However, there were just as many pulling for Stephens in a match of two players who don't overpower with their serve but hammer groundstrokes down the lines.

A back-and-forth opening set saw Halep jump to a 4-1 lead before Stephens found the range with her forehand and broke service three times to take a 6-5 lead. The American then wasted two set points as Halep forced a tiebreaker.