Experienced Simona Halep, who defeated Jessica Pegula, will play her 18th WTA 1000 final in Toronto on Sunday, aiming for a ninth title, against Beatrice Haddad Maia, who defeated Karolina Pliskova and is a debutant at this stage of the tournament. , writes France Presse.

With just over two weeks to go before the US Open, where she never reached more than the semi-finals in 2015 when she was also a finalist in Toronto, the Romanian (ranked 15th in the world) is confirming her fine summer, highlighted by a Wimbledon semi-final.

And in general, her return to form a year after leaving the Top 10 due to a series of injuries (shoulder, hip…).

Halep has won the Canadian Open twice, in 2016 and 2018 when she played in Montreal, and on Saturday she qualified for the final of the WTA 1000 tournament, an event ranked just below the Grand Slams, for the 18th time, defeating her 2 -6. 6-3, 6-4 over American Jessica Pegula (#7).

After this success, she did not hide her pleasure: “We have never played against each other before, so I did not know what to expect. It was a great fight. I’m so glad I didn’t fall. I can improve. But I’m building my confidence, building my game and I’m very happy to be in this position. –

Experience and patience

The former world number one (2017), French Open (2018) and Wimbledon (2019) winner will be aiming for her ninth WTA 1000 title after winning 23 titles in all categories on the circuit.

Halep, 30, finally put her experience to good use, managing to prevail in the end after a very aggressive start by Pegula, last year’s semi-finalist in Montreal, who was hoping to win a second title in 2022, after Washington in 2019.

At the beginning of the match, she was troubled by unforced errors, in particular the third and fourth double faults, which each time gave the opponent a break.

Halep recovered after losing the first set. The player, who had not lost a set in the tournament, was able to continue the exchanges and forced Pegula into an error.

The Romanian managed to pull away at 4-1, but had to fend off four break points to level in sets.

Halep was more consistent in the third set and broke to 5-2, but Pegula made a brave break and then saved two match points on her serve.

The Romanian was furious and cleared the cement with her racket before regaining control and closing out the match for the third time in two hours and 14 minutes.

“Fire is back”

“The fire is back, it’s a good sign if I do,” she smiled afterwards. Simona will still have to fear world number 24 Beatrice Haddad Maia, who proved to be very strong and managed to eliminate another former world number one. 1 (also in 2017), Karolina Pliskova (No. 14) of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-6 (9/7).

The 26-year-old Brazilian, who beat world number one Hugo Sviatek in the last 16, made a sudden and late appearance on the circuit after winning the first three tournaments of her career this season in St Malo, Birmingham and Nottingham.

She has now reached the final of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time, becoming the first player from her country to do so.

In their third meeting, each a match win so far, Haddad Maia put Pliskova under pressure from the start, breaking 5-1.

The 30-year-old Czech came back from a hip injury to close at 5-4 but was unable to stop the Brazilian from winning the first set.

Pliskova, a finalist at last year’s Canadian Open in Montreal, showed some improvement in the second set, but at 5-3, two set points down, she lost her balance.

In an extremely difficult tie-break, the Brazilian managed to win the second match point in two hours and three minutes.