Never before this year had Simona Halep won a WTA title, but 2013 has been lucky for the Romanian who went 5-0 in finals this year, her latest victory coming today, at the $795,707 Kremlin Cup in Moscow against Grand Slam champion Samantha Stosur.
After claiming a tight first set in a tiebreak (there was actually just one break of serve on each side, but Halep saved 0/1 break points while Stosur saved 11/12), Halep recovered from Stosur’s early break in the second set by making three of her own for a 7-6(1) 6-2 victory.
Following a first-round bye, the fifth-seeded Halep had a retirement victory over Magdalena Rybarikova, then stopped the comeback of Alisa Kleybanova in the quarterfinals, defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semis and her final victim was last year’s Moscow runner-up and seventh seed Stosur.
Halep’s title collection now includes: Nürnberg, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Budapest, New Haven and Moscow, the biggest tournament of the bunch. Today she is ranked No.18, but is projected to crack the Top 15 on Monday. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
