Premium
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, WTA's 4th, on Saturday qualified for the final of the WTA tournament in Rome, with total prize money worth 2,775,745 USD, after she defeated Dutch, Kiki Bertens, 7-5, 6-1.
Halep will thus play her second consecutive final, after having won the title in Madrid last week.
Simona Halep (25), seeded 6th at Foro Italico, won in one hour and 17 minutes to the same age Dutch player, WTA's 20th.
Bertens had passed Monica Niculescu in the first round in Rome, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Halep played against Kiki Bertens four times, with the score now being 3 to 1 in her favour, the only failure being on a clay court. Halep won in 2010 in the quarterfinals of the ITF tournament of Torhout (Belgium, 100,000 USD), 7-6 (2), 6-2, Bertens won in 2012 in the Fes (Morocco) tournament semifinals, 6-3, 6-4, and Simona won the last duel in 2016 in Wimbledon i the third round, 6-4, 6-3.
Simona who has reached ten consecutive wins (Madrid and Rome) secured a 230,565-euro cheque and 585 WTA points, and in the final she will meet the winner between Garbine Muguruza Blanco (Spain, WTA's 7th) and Elina Svitolina (Ukraine, WTA's 11th).
Halep will play in Rome her 24th final, so far having recorded 15 titles.
