Fists raised to the sky, Simona Halep can savor the moment. The Romanian won the WTA 1000 in Toronto, but above all she emerged victorious from a devilishly contested final where she was not always happy against the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (6-3, 2-6, 6-3).
His opponent had, in fact, taken the best of starts. With a powerful service that gave her many shifts to finish the point in one shot, Haddad Maia had broken from the first service game of the 15th player in the world and had detached 3-0. Jostled, Halep did not weigh heavily at the start of the match against the power and efficiency of the 24th player in the world. But the Romanian was not discouraged and then asserted her science of defense at first and that of neutralization in a second time.
She first struggled to put as many balls back into the court as possible, often at the cost of desperate races. And once installed in the exchange, she was able to play very long in the center to prevent the Brazilian from finding the angles necessary for her attacking game. The exchanges began to last and harden. Halep was tight and Haddad Maia couldn’t get past her. And the games started scrolling. Six, to be exact. What offer a superb reversal of situation to the former world number 1, who took the first set in front of a crowd not stingy with encouragement in his favor.
Haddad Maia flies over the second set
But this burst of energy, Halep was going to pay for it in the second set. Undeterred, Haddad Maia went on the attack again and broke from the start. A double fault from Halep (9 in total in the match) offered the double break to the Brazilian who even broke away 4-0. Again precise and regular in her attacks, she flew over the second set against a Halep who seemed powerless.
Halep don’t give up
Until the start of the third set where she seemed to have found her second wind. She broke away 2-0, but had to face four break points in the process. A superb pass and two fouls from Haddad Maia gave hope of getting out of it, but the Brazilian won the exchange on the fourth (2-1). But Halep wasn’t going to loosen her grip and erased that break in stride. As boss, she finished the match with a bang against an opponent who no longer had a solution to her game. first since his association with Patrick Mouratoglou, proved his return to the highest level.
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