Stephens, Halep set up rematch Montreal final

Sloane Stephens

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.

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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.

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.