Halep powers her way to victory
Tourney’s top seed outlasts Stephens in Rogers Cup final
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 third-seeded American Sloane Stephens 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4 to win the Rogers Cup title for the second time in three years.
Neither player was able to hold 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 two-hour and 41-minute match, it was ironic 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, then had a night match on Friday followed by an afternoon semifinal on Saturday.
Halep, who beat Stephens in the French Open final to cement her claim to the No. 1 ranking, got through the week because she’s stronger than ever.
“I get tired during the matches, but I have enough rhythm and also enough power in the muscles to stay there,” Halep said.
Halep complained about the scheduling earlier in the week and had a suggestion.
“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.
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,” Stephens said.
“I mean, there’s nothing more that 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.”
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.
The win was worth US$519,480 for Halep while Stephens earned $252,425.