Rome: Romania's Simona Halep reached her first final in the WTA event at the Rome Masters on Saturday after sweeping Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 7-5, 6-1 in their semi-final clash. Halep, who reached the semi-finals in the Italian capital in 2013 and 2015, will now meet the winner of the other semi-final between Garbine Muguruza and Elina Svitolina. Muguruza, the defending French Open champion, ended American Venus Williams' run on Friday while Ukrainian eighth seed Svitolina stunned Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova.
Meanwhile, Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the second seed, cruised into the semi-finals of the Rome Masters after a rain-interrupted 6-1, 6-4 win over Juan del Potro. Djokovic had taken a one-set lead over unseeded Argentinian, who held a 2-1 lead in the second set before heavy rain halted play.
Rohan Bopanna, Sania Mirza knocked out
Rome: Rohan Bopanna made a quarter-final exit from the ATP Rome Masters while Sania Mirza exited from the WTA event, being run simultaneously, following a semi-final defeat here.
Bopanna and his partner Pablo Cuevas fought tooth and nail against fourth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut but eventually lost 6-7(5), 7-6(2), 10-12 in the quarter-finals of the Euro 4,507,375 clay court event.
In the WTA event, third seeds Sania Mirza and Yaroslava Shvedova lost 3-6, 6-7(7) to second seeds Yung-Jan Chan and Martina Hingis in the semfinals of the USD 3,076,495 red clay event.