Romania’s Simona Halep clinched one of the tickets to the National Bank Open in Toronto with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 three-set victory over American Jessica Pegula on Saturday afternoon .
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The 30-year-old player is used to success in the WTA 1000 tournaments, she who signed her 184th victory, a high for women since 2009. She also won the Canadian event in 2016 and 2018, in Montreal .
For the 2022 edition, however, no opponent had given him as much trouble as Pegula, who was the first to take a sleeve off him. The seventh seed took advantage of Halep’s four double faults and inefficiency on her second serve to break serve three times and win 6-2.
It was the first time that the two tenniswomen crossed swords. The winner needed time to adapt and was able to win the second set despite other service difficulties. Pegula converted just one of the seven break points she offered herself in this set.
More consistent in the final engagement, Halep again broke her rival three times.
In the grand final, the 15th racket in the world will face the winner of the shock between the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia and the Czech Karolina Pliskova.