World number 17, Kiki Bertens won the biggest title of her career in Cincinnati as she saved championship point to stun world number one Simona Halep 2-6 7-6(6) 6-2.
Despite the result, it was the Romanian who took advantage of her Bertens’ early nerves as she raced out to an early break lead with some brutal groundstrokes. This was Halep’s third Cincinnati final and was looking to use her previous experiences to her advantage as she settled quicker into the match than Bertens.
The world number 17 had beaten some top quality opposition in getting to the final and one key factor leading to her good week was her fantastic variety and Bertens used that to feel her way into the match.
However this simply wasn’t good enough as Halep was playing out of the corners to perfection, with her forehand down the line especially causing Bertens a lot of trouble. The top seed only made one unforced error as she broke again and sealed the first set, 6-2 in just 32 minutes.
The Dutchwoman needed a strong start to the second set and produced exactly that as her flat forehands caused Halep panic early on. The world number 17 used her very good net skills to race to a 4-1 lead as she rushed Halep into a lot of errors.
The Roland Garros champion needed some inspiration from her coach, Darren Cahill, who told her to play with more patience and to make this a more physical contest like she did in the first set. The words from the Australian proved critical to Halep’s comeback as she won three games in a row to level the set at 4-4.
The Romanian’s variety on serve was key as Bertens was struggling to make returns now as she felt the pressure that Halep was applying on her. Despite creating a set point chance, Bertens couldn’t find the formula to break the world number one again as the second set was settled in a tiebreaker. The Dutchwoman found another gear in the tiebreak and use her forehand to dictate play as she saved match point to take the tiebreak 8-6 and force a deciding set.
The third set started with a share of breaks as both women were playing some outstanding all-court tennis as they looked to dominate the deciding set. However after the first two games, the match was all about Bertens as she returned and served much better to break two more times for a 4-1 lead. The Romanian was very negative in her attitude as at 2-1 down she proclaimed to Darren Cahill that the match had gone.
As the Romanian had checked out of the match, Bertens continued to cause problems with her slice and unique game style as she was closing in on the biggest title of her career. The Dutchwoman kept her composure like she has all week and sealed victory with an ace to win the biggest title of her career. The 26 year old was full of emotion after the match as she dropped to her knees, she beat three top 10 players on her way and thoroughly deserved the win against a mentally disappointing Simona Halep.
The world number one gave all the plaudits to Bertens after the match, stating “Definitely, I want to congratulate Kiki. You played amazing and you definitely deserve this title.”
Bertens becomes the first woman from the Netherlands to win the Western and Southern Open.
