Halep Edges Kerber to Reach Toronto Quarterfinals
Simona Halep battled past Angelique Kerber on Thursday, getting past the 13th seeded German 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the Rogers Cup quarterfinals.
Halep ended the seven-match winning streak of Kerber in a tough three-set affair. After Kerber edged out the second set 7-5, the German took a 3-2 lead in the deciding frame. Halep would hold, and then after the two exchanged breaks to bring it to 4-4, the second-seed Halep rattled off the last two games to advance.
“She was amazing. She has a lot of confidence—Stanford was a good tournament for her,” said Halep, referring to Kerber’s title at the Bank of the West Classic last week. “I think I played better than yesterday. I feel more confident now. My serve didn’t work very well, but I returned well. So I’m really happy that I could win this match. I was fighting until the end.”
Neither player was able to establish a dominant serve, as Kerber notched nine break points and Halep had eight. Halep was able to pick up one more in the third set, and that turned out to be the difference.
Up next for Halep in the quarterfinals is sixth-seed Agnieszka Radwanska. The Pole hung on to beat France’s Alize Cornet 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 on Thursday.
World number one Serena Williams cruised past 16th seeded German Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-2 to reach the final eight. The American held in all of her service games and never even faced a break point to advance past Petkovic in a little over an hour.
“I think I served better than in my first match. It was a big difference,” said Serena. “I still think I have a tremendous amount of improvement to do off the ground and everywhere else, though. I just felt off. Just gotta be more positive out there again. I just felt a little negative.
So, I’m just going to get back in that positive attitude and go from there.”
Serena will take on Italian Roberta Vinci next. Vinci ousted Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-3.
Vinci’s compatriot Sara Errani nailed down a nice victory on Thursday, downing Belarus native Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.
The 15th seed Errani will play Ukraine’s Lesya Tsurenko, who dispatched of German Carina Witthoeft 6-3, 6-4.
The other quarterfinal in Toronto will pit Switzerland teenager Belinda Bencic against fifth-seeded Serb Ana Ivanovic.
Bencic knocked off Sabine Lisicki on Thursday, while Ivanovic cruised past Polona Hercog.
