Beijing: Simona Halep will take over as the new No. 1 in the WTA world rankings after progressing to the China Open final with a dominant 6-2, 6-4 victory over Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko on Saturday.
Halep will face unseeded Caroline Garcia in the final on Sunday after the Frenchwoman beat 12th seed Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 in the second semi-final.
Halep avenged this year’s French Open final defeat to the hard-hitting Ostapenko with a ruthless display of all-round tennis that saw her send down five aces and 14 winners to oust the 20-year-old in 75 minutes.
The 26-year-old takes over the top spot from Spaniard Garbine Muguruza and will become the first Romanian to head the rankings when the updated standings are released on Monday.
“It’s very emotional, I think it’s the first time I cried on court,” Halep said in a post-match interview.
“It’s amazing that I could do this. My team, everyone at home... is watching, and I want to thank everyone. It’s my special day.”
Ostapenko, for her part, put on a lacklustre performance and recorded 32 unforced errors as she failed to make any inroads on her opponent's solid defence. Halep also broke the Latvian’s serve four times, including in the first game of the match.
The Latvian showed some resistance in the second set to forge a 4-3 lead but Halep won three consecutive games to seal a victory she will remember for the rest of her life.
Wuhan Open champion Garcia raced to her 10th consecutive win to climb into the world’s top-10 as an error-strewn Kvitova recorded 11 double faults and won just 10 of 27 second serves.
The 23-year-old took a 3-0 lead in the first set to pile the pressure on Kvitova, who failed to make a comeback and lost the set.
Twice Wimbledon champion Kvitova started the second set strongly to gain a 2-0 advantage but her wayward serving cost her as Garcia levelled at 5-5 before clinching the match.
Garcia is on course to win her second consecutive title but Halep has beaten her in both their previous meetings.
In women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and Shuai Peng’s campaign ended after they suffered a 6-2, 1-6, 5-10 defeat in the semi-final to Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-jan.
Hingis and her Taiwanese partner will take on Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova in the final. Incidentally, Sania and Peng had lost in the semi-finals to the same opponents, and they went on to win the title on that occasion.
Among men, Rafael Nadal was forced into a third set before the world No. 1 piled the pressure on Grigor Dimitrov to reach the final.
The 31-year-old, enjoying a late-career flourish and chasing a sixth title this season, beat off the Bulgarian third seed 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in their semi-final on Beijing's outside hard courts. Dimitrov battled back from a set down to take it to a deciding third set.
(Agencies)
