World Number 1 Simona Halep has scored her second consecutive win over three-time Rome champion Maria Sharapova in their ninth head-to-head match to reach her 30th career final.
Halep will be looking to win the 17th title of her career and the second of the year after Shenzhen.
Halep and Sharapova played a hard-fought match with 19 breaks of serve. Halep won 63 % of her return points and converted 11 of her 19 break point chances. Sharapova got eight breaks.
Halep came back from one set down to secure her spot in her second consecutive final in Rome. She will face Elina Svitolina, who triumphed in the Eternal city last year.
The first set started with six straight breaks of serve. Halep got an immediate break in the first game of the opening set, but Sharapova earned a break point that Halep saved with a good first serve. The Russian star converted her second break point, when Halep made a double fault at deuce. Halep got another break to take a 2-1 lead, when Sharapova made two consecutive double faults and misfired twice. Sharapova hit a dropshot winner on break point to break back at 30. Halep got the fifth consecutive break, when Sharapova double faulted. Halep went up 40-15 in the sixth game, but Sharapova got it back to deuce. The three-time Rome champion hit her third drop-shot winner of the match to earn a break point and converted it, when Halep hit a ball long.
Sharapova was the first to hold serve in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead and this proved to be crucial. The Russian player brought up two break points in the eighth game. She converted it with a crosscourt winner. In the ninth game Halep earned three break points. Sharapova saved the first break point with a backhand into the corner, but Halep converted her second break-back chance to trail 4-5. Sharapova broke Halep for the fifth time in the first set at 15 to seal the opening set.
Halep saved both break points she faced and broke serve three times to win the second set 6-1.
Both players traded breaks in six of the first seven games. Sharapova held serve to draw level to 4-4. Halep held serve at 15 in the ninth game and got the decisive break in the 10th game to close out a grueling match, when Sharapova served to draw level to 5-5.
Halep had already secured the world number 1 spot after her win in the semifinal and the defeat of Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter final.
“It was a very tough match. I had to play aggressive against Sharapova. It’s always a pleasure to come back here in Rome. I will have to play a great match against Elina Svitolina tomorrow. She is a tough opponent. I invite all my Romanaian fans to come here to support me”, said Simona Halep.
Sharapova was tired after the long marathon battle against Jelena Ostapenko in yesterday’s quarter final.
“I felt like I was hitting the ball well in the first set, but I didn’t serve well throughout the match. I just didn’t have enough velocity and pace on that shot, and I lost the accuracy on the return in the last few sets. It’s obvious that the amount of hours that we played before the match is quite different, but when we go on court, that does not really matter. That’s all thrown away, and you still have to play the match. I think I battled well. It’s always going to be a physical battle against Simona, but despite everything I was there physically. There is a lot of good things I can take away from a week like this”, said Sharapova.
