Toronto, women’s final: Simona Halep triumphs over Maia

After almost two years Simona Halep wins a WTA 1000 title, and she does so by making it clear that she, former world number one, is back. Great. The Romanian conquers Toronto, respecting the excellent personal tradition that sees her finding herself particularly well in Canada (with this is the victory number three), beating a really tough opponent like Beatriz Haddad Maia, one of the revelations of 2022, in three hard-fought sets (6-3 2-6 6-3). For Halep, this is her 24th title in her career, which also earned her a return to the top ten. A really heavy success for Simona, 31 years old, the first since she started working with Patrick Mouratoglou, after months and months of suffering, especially for infinite physical troubles that had really questioned the return to certain levels by the company. Halep. Successful undertaking, the WTA thanks.

Uphill

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And to think that Simona’s final serving had started in a disastrous way, with four double fouls in the first serving and the Brazilian who flew 3-0, but the Romanian then took over the match, putting in six games of line. Haddad Maia in the second set, however, turned the situation upside down: she let go of her arm more, becoming more aggressive and starting immediately with a break advantage that channeled the fraction of her in her favor. In the third set the geometry and the greater experience of Halep led the Romanian to victory, to the delight of the public, who has always “adopted” Simona as a local darling.

Applause for Beatriz

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Applause, however, for the defeat, and this 26-year-old Brazilian deserves them all, after beating Leylah Fernandez, Iga Swiatek and Karolina Pliskova in this tournament, who also earned her a place in the top-20 for the first time in her career.