Angelique Kerber beat Simona Halep 6-3 6-4 to set up a final against Karolina Pliskova in Cincinnati. Kerber is just one match away from overtaking Serena Williams at the top of the WTA Ranking.
Halep, who was bidding to reach her second consecutive Cincinnati final, led 4-2 in her head-to-head matches against Kerber but she is 4-0 on hard court. The Romanian player won their previous match in three sets in Montreal two weeks ago.
The first set started with four breaks in the first five games. Halep got an early break in a 6-minute long first game. Kerber earned two break points and broke on her second chance at deuce in the second game when Halep hit her backhand into the net.
After holding her serve Kerber broke serve in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead as Halep made a double fault on the break point. In the fifth game Halep rallied from 15-40 to convert her third break point chance at deuce for 2-3. Both players held their service games for the first time in the match in sixth and seventh games before the match was suspended by rain as Kerber was leading 4-3. As the match resumed, Halep fell behind 0-40 on her serve and was broken at 15 to trail 3-5. Kerber won eight of her nine points to clinch the first set.
Kerber went up a set and a break in the first game of the second set. The German opened up a 2-0 lead after Halep made several unforced errors. In the third game Kerber got a double break for 3-0 after a hard-fought deuce game and held her service game to race out to 4-0. Halep bounced back by winning three consecutive games for 3-4 but Kerber responded by fending off a break point for 5-3 and closed out the match two games later as Halep made her 50th unforced error.
Kerber stepped up and saved break points wit a second shot off a good return from Halep. The Romanian player held her serve to love. Kerber served out to 30 to wrap up the second set 6-4.
Halep still leads 4-3 in her seven head-to-head matches against Kerber but the German is 3-1 ahead this year including wins in the Wimbledon quarter final and the Fed Cup match between Romania and Germany. Halep beat Kerber in the semifinal of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Kerber is just one match away from clinching the Number 1 spot in the WTA Ranking. If she wins the Cincinnati final, the German star will overtake Serena Williams, who skipped this tournament with a sore shoulder. Williams has topped the WTA Ranking for 183 consecutive weeks, the second longest streak. Kerber leads 4-2 in her head-to-head matches against her final’s opponent Karolina Pliskova
“I still have one match to go. If it happens, it will be amazing but still I have to focus on the next match against a really tough opponent Pliskova and we’ll see what happens tomorrow”, said Kerber.
