Cincinnati: Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza crushed Simona Halep 6-1, 6-0 Sunday, to win the Cincinnati Open title and deny her opponent World No.1 spot.
Muguruza won her first title in the US and her second of the year, along with Wimbledon. In three tournaments since, the Spaniard has at least reached the quarterfinals. Now it’s on to New York for the US Open, where she’s got a history of disappointment.
“The tough matches never go my way, so I want to change that,” she said. “I want to find the recipe this year.”
It was a big disappointment for Halep – the third time this season that she needed one more win to move up to No.1 and couldn’t get it. She came up just short at the French Open and Wimbledon, and had it in the back of her mind the last few weeks.
Perhaps that had something to do with the poor showing. “Maybe I feel the pressure and I don’t realise it,” Halep said. “Maybe I just played bad. I don’t know what to say. But it’s still there. I still have a chance, so I will work for it and maybe one day it will be there.”
Halep brought a lot of momentum into this final title match. The Romanian is fully healed from a knee injury that limited her early in the season, and she didn’t lose a set all week until Sunday, when she was never in the match.
Muguruza broke her to go up 2-0 in the first set and was in control. Halep won only 12 points in the set, which lasted 23 minutes. Muguruza broke her again to open the second set and faced only two break points all match.
When it ended, Muguruza congratulated Halep and walked around the court with her smiling face cradled in both hands. Then she put her hands over her heart and reached toward the applauding crowd.
Pliskova remains on top of WTA rankings
Madrid: Czech tennis player Karolina Pliskova remained at the top of the WTA rankings released Monday with 6,390 points, while Spain’s Garbine Muguruza climbed to the third place from the sixth spot. Romania’s Simona Halep, who would have gone to the top had she not lost the Cincinnati final to Wimbledon champion Muguruza Sunday, came in second with 6,385 points. Former World No.1 German Angelique Kerber dropped from third to sixth. Elina Svitolina and Caroline Wozniacki are at fourth and fifth positions respectively. Johanna Konta, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska have acquired seventh to 10th places respectively.
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