Simona Halep edges past Kirsten Flipkens to the final of the Grand Prix de SAR
World number 65 Simona Halep of Romania continued her brilliant run by defeating the Belgian opponent, Kirsten Flipkens in the semi-final of the Grand Prix de SAR la Princesse Lalla Meryem at Fes, Morocco on Saturday. It took one
hour and thirty two minutes for the Romanian to oust Flipkens in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 and book a berth in the final of the $220,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay-court tournament.
This ninth victory for Halep in the running WTA season improves her head-to-head record against the Belgian opponent to 2-0, as she had already defeated Flipkens at Tokyo last year. Halep has qualified for her second WTA final
at Fes, as she was also the runner up last year when the Czech veteran Iveta Benesova routed her out of the match. The 19-year-old Romanian exhibited her tremendous tennis skills in the Saturday’s game and proved her dominance over Flipkens in every segment
of the match. The Belgian hung in the contest for quite some time but failed to withstand the furry of Halep and succumbed in the second set let her in the final.
“It was a difficult match, because she played a different game with slice and slowly more, but I’m happy that I played good and I found the game to beat her,” said Halep in her post match reviews.
Exchange of plenty of break points was witnessed in the matchup, with the Belgian clinching four and Halep registering six serve breaks en route to victory. Five double faults on Flipkens’ part proved expensive for her as her opponent
fully capitalised upon her mistakes to push her out of the game.
The Romanian teenager was quick to start off the game and put Flipkens under pressure by her early aggressive moves. The Belgian kept resisting her opponent and had a crucial beak point at 5-3, which she frittered away. Halep then
shifted her gears and stung a serve break at 6-5 to serve out of the first set at 7-5.
Halep carried on her winning momentum in the following set as well and broke into the lead at 3-2. She held that advantage till the conclusion of the game and finished off the competition at 6-4 to book a berth in the final at
Fes. The Romanian will be taking on the unseeded Alberta Brianti of Italy in the final of the Grand Prix de SAR la Princesse Lalla Meryem on Sunday. Brianti reached the final of the tournament when her semi-final opponent, Dinara Safina withdrew from the contest
due to illness, awarding a title shot to the Italian.
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