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Halep rallies past Muguruza to reach third Italian Open final
ROME, Sept 20, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Top seed Simona Halep ousted Spaniard
Garbine Muguruza in three sets to advance to her third final at the Italian
Open on Sunday, played on front of a small number of spectators for the first
time.
The Romanian dropped her second set on clay in Rome before seeing off
Muguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a battle of former French Open champions before
Roland Garros in a week’s time.
Halep — the 2018 French Open winner — will next play either Czech
defending champion Karolina Pliskova, the second seed, or Marketa Vondrousova
for a place in the final.
Halep, 28, has finished runner-up in her two previous finals at the Foro
Italico in 2017 and 2018.
Ninth seed Muguruza, the 2016 Roland Garros champion, fell to her fourth
semi-final defeat in Rome, the furthest she has gone in the tournament.
Wimbledon champion Halep extended her winning streak this season to 13
consecutive victories.
She won the Dubai title in February, before the coronavirus lockdown,
coming back to claim victory in Prague last month having skipped the US Open.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1927 hrs