ROME: Defending champion Elina Svitolina moved one win away from her second title at the Italian Open on Saturday with a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Anett Kontaveit.
Fourth-ranked Svitolina is aiming for her third title of the season following victories in Brisbane and Dubai. She will face the winner from Maria Sharapova and top seed Simona Halep for the trophy on Sunday.
Relevant Pieces: Rafael Nadal closed in on an eighth Rome Masters title as he dismissed old rival Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 on Saturday to reach the final for a record-extending 10th time.
The last-four success will give the Spanish top seed added confidence ahead of the French Open, where he has won a record 10 titles.
Nadal, still unbeaten in semi-finals at the Foro Italico, unleashed a trademark clay-court attack after winning a tight first set lasting well over an hour. “I need to be able to play my best tomorrow,” Nadal said of a Sunday final against either defending champion Alexander Zverev or Croatian Marin Cilic.
“I’m very happy with my game. It all worked for me, the tactics, the shots.” The 31-year-old world number two cut the deficit in his head-to-head series with Djokovic to 26-25, after their 51st meeting since first facing off in 2006.
But the Serb complained afterwards about poor scheduling which affected his preparation, playing a late-afternoon quarter-final on Friday before returning to court on Saturday mid-afternoon.
“I don’t want to seem like I’m complaining about losing the match because of the schedule. But having to end at night and coming back to play early in the day affects a lot,” he said.
-Simona Halep profited from a miserable day on serve for Maria Sharapova to reach the Italian Open final with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat of the five-time Grand Slam winner on Saturday. The Romanian world number one will bid for the title on Sunday against Elina Svitolina in a repeat of last year’s final won by the Ukrainian. Svitolina booked her spot as she dominated Anett Kontaveit to win 6-4, 6-3 in just 74 minutes. Halep fought back from a set down to win only her second match against Sharapova, who may have been feeling the effects of a three-hour victory the day before and was broken 10 times. Halep has now defeated the Russian twice in a row having lost their seven previous meetings. “She plays tough, it’s difficult to return against her,” Halep said. “I tried to play my game, I didn’t think about our past. “I did what I had to do, I changed tactics after the first set and it worked very well for me. “Against Svitolina I must play my best, and we will see what happens.”
APP