Simona Halep beats Belinda Bencic to reach final of Madrid Open

Speed Post News Network

Patna : World No 3 Simona Halep, 27, Romania, beat World No 18 Belinda Bencic, 22, Switzerland, in a three-set thriller in the semi-finals of Madrid Open, Madrid, Spain, on May 10, 2019, to reach the final of the clay court event. Halep beat Belinda Bencic, who had stunned World No 1 and top seed Naomi Osaka, 21, Japan, in the quarter-finals on May 9, in a tough contest 6-2, 6-7, 6-0 to advance to the final of the tournament.

Simona Halep, the reigning French Open champion, broke Belinda’s service 8 times in the match while the latter broke her service thrice. Halep won 6 games in a row in the match to 3 by Belinda. Belinda served 2 Aces in the match to 1 by Halep. Belinda though committed 4 double faults to 2 by Halep. Halep, a former World No 1, won 47 service points to 39 by Belinda.

Simona Halep, an Australian Open finalist in 2018, will face the winner of the second semi-finals between World No 7 Kiki Bertens, 27, Netherlands, and World No 8 Sloan Stephens, 26, USA, the US Open winner in 2017, in the final. Berten won the first 6-2. The second set is on. Bertens had defeated World No 2 Petra Kvitová, 29, Czech Republic, in the quarter-finals.