Halep routs Barty to reach Montreal final

Top-ranked Romanian Simona Halep brushed aside surprise semi-finalist Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 6-1 to reach the final of the Rogers Cup here.

Halep, on Saturday, was too solid from the baseline for the Australian, who found herself under constant pressure from the Romanian's fine-tuned ground strokes, reports Efe.

The Romanian successfully employed a strategy based on making a high percentage of first serves and controlling the rallies.

It paid off as she put 86 per cent of her first serves in play and won 80 per cent of those points in the first set. Her numbers were similar in the second set (81 per cent first serves in and a 71 per cent first-serve winning percentage).

Barty tried to do more with her first serve than her opponent and finished the contest with five aces.

But her 29 per cent winning percentage on second-serve points for the match (a reflection of Halep's domination of the baseline rallies) proved to be her undoing.

Although Barty has one of the stronger forehands on the WTA Tour, Halep's big edge on the backhand side meant most of the baseline points went her way.

"I think I played smart tennis today. I pushed her ... on her backhand; then I could just receive a shorter ball, an easier ball for me to open the court," the world No. 1 was quoted as saying on the WTA's Web site.

--IANS

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