Nadal, Halep come up aces at Rogers Cup
Both top seeds able to serve up wins in Canadian events
TORONTO — Rafael Nadal won his 80th ATP World Tour title Sunday — and spoiled Stefanos Tsitsipas' 20th birthday.
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.
“I'm very happy to have this trophy with me again,” Nadal said. “It means a lot. It has been a fantastic week, a very positive one.”
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.
“He was normal like all of us and he managed to become this beast, this monster that he is today," Tsitsipas said. “It's true ... that's Rafael Nadal, of Spain, left, hoists the championship trophy after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipasin the men's final in Toronto, while Simona Halep of Romania, right hugs the trophy after beating Sloane Stephens of the United States in the women’s final Sunday in Montreal. how you feel when you play against him. I need to work much more and hopefully I can reach his level one day.”
Nadal overcame a late service break and fought off a set point at Aviva Centre. He converted his first match point of the tiebreaker to end it.
“He never cracks," Tsitsipas said. “He will always grab you like a bulldog and he will always make you suffer on the court.”
MONTREAL — Simona Halep had just enough energy left to claim a second Rogers Cup title.
The world’s top-ranked player defeated third-seeded Sloane Stephens 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4 in a see-saw battle that featured 15 service breaks — eight for Stephens, seven for Halep — at a steaming hot IGA Stadium on Sunday.
The 26-year-old also won when the event was last held in Montreal in 2016.
“I couldn’t believe that it’s over,” said Halep after claiming her third title this year and the 18th of her career. “This week, it’s been an amazing effort.
“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 let off steam at the Women’s Tennis Association after her quarterfinal Friday for giving her a difficult schedule on a week in which she played twice on the one day due to a rain delay. Her week included a three hour seven minute win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova that was played over two days.
But she then cruised to a two-set victory over Ashleigh Barty in the semifinals and then outlasted Stephens in a thriller that lasted two hours 41 minutes.
It was a repeat of this year’s French Open final in which Halep beat Stephens in three sets, but she said this one was even better.
“Both matches were crazy good,” said Halep. “She makes me play better and better every time we meet each other.”