| Advertisement |
Simona Halep of Romania, who captured the Madrid Open last week, will play Elina Svitolina of Ukraine on Sunday in the final of the WTA Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. Sixth-seeded Halep rolled past No. 15 seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-1 on Saturday, while eighth-seeded Svitolina advanced when reigning French Open champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain retired because of a neck injury after only 22 minutes while trailing 4-1 in the first set.
Advertisement
It was the fourth time this season that Muguruza, the No. 3 seed, was forced to withdraw from a match.
"I didn't want to leave Rome without at least trying to play," Muguruza said.
Svitolina will be playing in her fourth final of the season, having won the first three.
The Ukrainian will be seeking her eighth career title and is 2-0 in finals on clay. She has won nine of her last 10 matches on clay and will take the lead in the Race to Singapore with a victory.
"I just want to wish a fast recovery to Garbine; she has such a big tournament ahead in Roland Garros (this coming week) which is very tough as she's the defending champion," Svitolina told the crowd. "It's going to be very tough for her and hopefully she will recover quickly."
Halep took a hard-fought first set, in which with Bertens saved five set points to hold serve and then broke serve to make it 5-5, the Romanian broke back and served out cleanly.
After racing to a 4-0 lead in the second set, Halep closed out the match in 1 hour, 17 minutes.
"I feel happy we could finish actually," Halep said of the match that was threatened by rain. "It's really tough to stop because of the rain but here we are, I'm in the final and it's really nice.
"I feel very confident and coming from Madrid with the title makes me stronger on court, also mentally. ... I feel great and just want to keep playing and why not try to win this title."
Halep, who has won 16 career titles and won her last 15 matches on clay, will meet Svitolina for the first time in their careers.
