Halep, Muguruza cruise into Cincinnati final

Ohio Aug 20 (IANS) Romania s Simona Halep brushed aside American Sloane Stephens 6-2 6-1 to advance to the final of the Western & Southern Open here on Saturday.

The second seed Halep who had reached the semifinals of this hard-court tennis event for the third straight year showed her superiority from the baseline by completely dominating the second-serve points reports Efe.

Halep won 91 percent (10 out of 11) of those points in her service games and 83 percent (10 out of 12) on return.

In Sunday s final she will take on the fourth-seeded Muguruza who claimed a surprisingly easy 6-3 6-2 win over Czech top seed and world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova in Saturday s first semifinal.

Halep will become World No.1 for the first time if she can defeat Muguruza to capture her maiden title in Cincinnati.

Muguruza narrowly avoided defeat in a third-round 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-3) victory on Thursday over American Madison Keys and needed two hours and 45 minutes to get past Russia s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 5-7 7-5 in Friday s quarterfinals.

But she was nearly flawless on Saturday not losing her serve once and breaking Pliskova four times.

--IANS
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