BESIDE THE SI-SIDE

SIMONA HALEP puts her fitness and tenacity down to training on the beach back in her native Romania.

The 2018 French Open winner (above) and world No.7 cruised past Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-3 last night to book her first Wimbledon final to face Serena

Williams. But the 27-year-old said: “The champions from Romania come from my hometown Constanta. The air from the beach helped us, we trained a lot on the sand as kids.

“I have played Serena – many of the matches were very close.”