Sloane Stephens surged into the final of the WTA Canada tournament in Montreal with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Elina Svitolina (AFP Photo/Minas Panagiotakis) Montreal (AFP) - Sloane Stephens sent defending champion Elina Svitolina crashing out of the WTA Canada tournament in Montreal on Saturday to set up a rematch of the French Open final against Simona Halep. American third seed Stephens surged into Sunday's final against world number one Halep after overpowering Svitolina 6-3, 6-3 in the day's second semi-final. Stephens had dominated the first set, scoring two early breaks to race into a 4-0 lead against a hesitant Svitolina. Svitolina rallied briefly to get back to 5-3 but then handed Stephens another break and the first set when she sent a forehand wide. The second set was a similar story, with Stephens going 3-1 up after an early break. The 25-year-old from Florida then overcame a wobble in the fifth game, double-faulting three times before eventually holding for a 4-1 lead and closing out the set. US Open winner Stephens will go against Halep on Sunday, having only beaten the Romanian twice in their previous eight meetings. Halep, who defeated Stephens in three sets at Roland Garros in June, earlier cruised past Australia's Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 6-1 to book her place in the final. Halep was in control from the outset against a nervous-looking Barty, whose challenge was undone by a string of unforced errors. Barty was in trouble on her opening service game, an error giving French Open champion Halep a break point which she duly converted with a superb backhand crosscourt winner. The next three games went with serve to leave Halep 3-1 up and the 26-year-old then bagged her second break in the fifth game when another Barty error let Halep off the hook to take the game to deuce. A sensational backhand winner down the line gave Halep a break point and when Barty limply returned into the net on the next exchange she found herself 4-1 down. Barty grabbed a consolation break of serve to make it 4-2, but was unable to claw back another break as Halep took the first set 6-4. Halep went for the jugular in the second set, opening with two quick breaks to take a 3-0 lead. Barty offered a flicker of resistance in the fourth game after earning three break points to go to 0-40. Story continues But once again Halep's experience came to the fore and she fought back to deuce and saved another break point before holding for 4-0. Both players then held before Halep soon took three match points at 0-40 in the seventh game. Barty fought back to deuce to delay the inevitable, but Halep secured another break to reach her third Canadian final in four years.<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>It's all about soul, it's all about faith and a deeper devotion, as Billy Joel sang, cause under the love, also the passion for tennis, is a stronger emotion. Simona Halep, the 2015 runner-up and 2016 champion, beat Sloane Stephens 7-6 3-6 6-4 in one of most exciting match of the season. She double-faulted on her first match point, she put an ace on her last, and became the 12th player in the Open Era to win multiple Rogers Cup titles after Evonne Goolagong, Regina Marsikova, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Stefanie Graf, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Amélie Mauresmo, Justine Henin and Serena Williams. The world No.1 won two points more than Stephens, 52 to 50, in a thrilling, emotionally exhausting first set. Stephens started to press on Halep's serve in the opening games but she finished to hit also some loose shots. The Romanian forced four errors in five points from Stephens, who has never beaten a current World No.1 in eight attempts and claimed the first break of the match. Stephens has broken serve 21 times en route to the final, winning 61.8% of her return games, but the US Open champion looked helpless against the only player to win more than half of return games throughout the season. Halep cruised through her 42nd win this season, more than any other player on tour, with 24 of these coming on hard courts, with Angelique Kerber and Elina Svitolina (both 21) being the only other players to register more than 20 wins on these surface. Halep insisted to force a series of backhand errors from Stephens to start her travel towards the four Top 20 victory in her Rogers Cup campaign. The world No.1 came to the match with a 9-27 record against Top 5 players, wins coming over No.3 Muguruza (2018 Roland Garros), No.3 Karolina Pliskova (2017 Roland Garros), No.2 Kerber (2016 Montréal), No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska (2016 Cincinnati), No.5 Wozniacki (2015 Dubai), No.5 Bouchard (2014 WTA Finals), No.1 Serena Williams (2014 WTA Finals), No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska (2014 Doha and 2013 Rome). She increased her chances to reach the tenth with a second consecutive break, showing all her athleticism to create further competitive edge off the forehand side. "Trust your feet," said Sloane Stephens' coach Kamau Murray, called on court at the changeover, "play closer to the baseline. She's grunting, but the ball isn't going anywhere. Because you're so far back, your ball is going short. You're hitting more balls in the net in the first five games than in the whole tournament". As Pancho Gonzalez used to say, be always ready to change a strategy that isn't working in a match. Murray suggested the world No.3 to "step back up to the baseline, shake the ball, play more in the middle and more forehand". Murray, offering his usually insightful point of view, noted Stephens felt the pressure and played anchored far back behind the baseline, where Montréal is painted on the ground. The American broke back and raised the level in the best two games of the whole match. She managed to break back after Halep missed a chance to move 5-1 up, as she clipped the line on a crosscourt backhand to earn a third break point, and struck a return winner to convert it. In the second straight deuce game, punctuated by a flashy return from Halep just on the line, Stephens had to dig deep to hold to 3-4. Both players were satisfied to hit with razor thin margins, the American saved a breakpoint, Halep missed a second off the backhand, and two misses off the return gave Stephens a sigh of relief. Halep, as always extremely hard on herself and a bit negative when her desire for perfectionism collide against the reality, asked for Darren Cahill's suggestions. Keep the acceleration on the backhand remained the main refrain. "Fast to the middle, keep the acceleration on both forehand and backhand, then open up the court. Once you get into the rallies, you're looking unbelievable Simo, some of the best tennis I've seen. The harder you work, the harder she has to work". Against Halep's frustration, he insisted on the only things that matter, the score, the break up that the Romanian, however, would lose soon to 4-4. After an incredible ninth game, the world No.1 hit harder and harder to move 5-4 up. Both players looked totally on fire but Halep missed an easy forehand as she went to serve out the set. Such an error seemed unthinkable for the Romanian, totally subdued for the rest of the game. A couple of stunning defenses helped Halep to save two set points and force a tiebreak. But she conceded two essential minibreaks to let Stephens move 3-0 up and improve her record to 4-5 this season. The world No.1 lost a fourth of the seven she has played so far in 2018, the maiden in nine clashes against Stephens who seemed to have the set on her racquet at 5-2 on serve. She missed two shots wide, but Halep double-faulted to give her two set points at 6-4. Stephens missed the first, Halep saved the second and played a gorgeous down the line forehand to overcome her opponent, who sent a backhand return wide on set point. After a set that saw her lead 4-1, with a game point to go 5-1, Halep came back from 1-5 and 4-6 in the tiebreak, winning the last four points of one of the best sets in the WTA circuit so far. Three straight breaks kicked off the second set. Predictably, the level worsened from the astonishing end of the first set, but Stephens impressively continued pressing after the tie-break. Halep played consistently, made fewer errors but Stephens maintained her edge, and the lead by a break, as she saved a couple of break back chances to hold to 4-2. Playing the eighth final appearance of her career, bidding to become the 11th different American woman to win the Rogers Cup in the Open Era, following in the<doc-sep>
Eyes have it: Simona Halep on her way to victory over Sloane Stephens on Sunday (AFP Photo/Minas Panagiotakis) Montreal (AFP) - World number one Simona Halep held her nerve in a rollercoaster duel with Sloane Stephens Sunday to win the WTA Montreal crown for the second time. In a gruelling 2hr 41min battle, French Open champion Halep prevailed 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-4 over Stephens in a repeat of the duo's meeting in the final of Roland Garros earlier this year. The victory was Halep's 18th career title and her second in Montreal following her success in 2016. The 26-year-old sealed the win with an ace on her fourth match point, capping an enthralling duel marked by several momentum swings. Halep had taken the first set on a tie-break, after saving four set points against American third seed Stephens. Halep made the stronger start, dictating rallies from the baseline to race into a 4-1 lead after twice breaking Stephens in the opening five games. Yet reigning US Open champion Stephens rallied superbly to claw her way back into the contest, breaking twice to level at 4-4. That however proved to be the cue for Halep to respond, breaking back after a net cord sat up invitingly for the Romanian, who crushed a winner into the corner for 5-4. Another poor service game from Halep though gave the initiative back to Stephens, who broke for 5-5 and then held for a 6-5 lead. Stephens appeared to be closing in on the first set in the next game, when a wild forehand from Halep -- her 20th unforced error -- handed her opponent two set points. But Halep dug deep to save both points and then forced the tie-break. Stephens again looked to be on the brink of the first set after surging into a 5-1 lead which soon became 6-4 in the tiebreak. But once again the American was unable to seal the deal, Halep recovering to win the next four points for 8-6. Stephens responded brilliantly in the second set however, breaking Halep twice in the first three games before advancing into a 5-3 lead. Once again though Stephens appeared to be on her way to squandering the momentum, wasting three set points in the ninth game before finally converting her to force a decisive third set. Story continues Both players traded early breaks in the decider before Halep secured the 13th break of the match in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead. A hold left her 4-2 up and she bagged another break in the seventh game to go 5-2 ahead when Stephens wearily duffed a straightforward volley into the net. Stephens refused to go quietly though, saving a match point before breaking for 5-3, and then saving two more match points to hold. Halep was not to be denied however, thumping down an ace to seal a memorable win on her next service game.