Halep triumphant second time around
One year after heat stroke denied her shot at title, Romanian gets redemption
MONTREAL— The large contingent of red-and-yellow-clad Romanian fans at Uniprix Stadium got what they came for: a convincing victory by Simona Halep in the final of the women’s Rogers Cup.
A roar went up and flags were waving as Halep defeated error-prone American Madison Keys 7-6 (2), 6-3 to claim the title in Canada on her second try, one year after heat stroke forced her to retire from the championship match.
“I like being here in Montreal at lot,” said the fifth-seeded Halep, whose world ranking will rise to third on Monday. “With all the Romanians, (it) felt like at home.
“The man that announced us on the court said two words in Romanian, so that motivated me a lot. I said that now I have to win.”
It was the Halep’s third title of the year and 14th of her career. She won $497,700 U.S., while Keys took home $241,840.
Halep has won nine consecutive matches, including a victory at her home tournament two weeks ago. She called the Bucharest event “a small tournament” that nonetheless showed she was playing strong tennis.
She wasn’t the only Romanian athlete in the spotlight in Montreal in recent days. She arrived last week in time to take part in the 40th anniversary of the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The star guest was Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian gymnast who dazzled the Games with the first perfect 10 in Olympic history.
“When I arrived here first day, I went to that big event for her,” said Halep. “It motivated me a bit. It feels nice that 40 years later I won here in Montreal. It’s a nice thing for Roma- nians.”
Halep outlasted the 10th-seeded Keys in a messy first set, then dominated the second in a one-hour, 16minute match on a warm, sunny afternoon.
There were eight service breaks in the first set — four apiece — before Halep took over in the tiebreaker and then went up 3-0 to start the second set, which included one game where Keys put an easy volley into the net on break point. Halep cruised from there.
Keys has the more powerful serve, but the 21-year-old struggled with first-serve accuracy. That played to Halep’s strength as a strong rallier and baseline player. Keys repeatedly ended rallies with shots into the net as Halep patiently kept the ball in play.
“I don’t think I was serving as well,” said Keys. “I think it was just a matter of close points here or there. That was really the whole match. I was starting to press a little bit. There were some times when I maybe could have taken a step back and hit a safer ball. I was just going for some shots too early.”
Keys, who has nonetheless been hot of late with 21 wins in her last 25 matches, will climb to ninth in the world, equalling her career-best ranking.