In a clash of two Roland Garros champions, top seed Simona Halep fought past Garbine Muguruza 6-3 4-6 6-4 to reach the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Halep broke Muguruza’s serve three times and fended off four out of five break points to win the first set relatively comfortably.
After receiving a medical timeout for a lower back problem in-between sets, the ninth-seeded Muguruza again found herself trailing to Halep, but this time she twice battled back from a break down and earned a break of her own to finally lead, 5-4, before serving out at love to force a decider.
After absolutely regaining control in the deciding set, racing to a 5-1 lead, Halep lost three games in a row and Muguruza once again saw light at the end of the tunnel. However, the Spaniard quickly threw away everything she worked for from 1-5 to 4-5 as she double-faulted twice from 15-30 to hand over the match.
Halep’s win-loss record in three-setters this year is now 6-0 and she’s on a 13-match winning-streak (the last player who beat her was Garbine Muguruza in the Australian Open semifinals).
