Top seed Simona Halep sent Caroline Garcia packing for the second consecutive year at the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Friday with a 7-5 6-1 win to set up a semi-final showdown with Ashleigh Barty on Saturday.
The French Open champion showed no signs of fatigue following her marathon three-set win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Wednesday, running down balls to extend points and wear down the slower Garcia.
After a shaky start Halep won three straight games to take the first set and dominated the second set behind pinpoint serving and stout defense.
A confident @Simona_Halep talks to the press following her @CoupeRogers quarterfinal win! pic.twitter.com/YvVeGdnL83
— WTA (@WTA) August 11, 2018
Next up for Halep is Australian Barty, who strolled to a 6-3 6-1 win over Kiki Bertens in their quarter-final match earlier in the day.
The 15th-seeded Barty won 80 percent of her first serve points and broke Bertens four times as she cruised to victory.
Saturday's semi-final will mark the first career meeting between Halep and Barty.
World number one @Simona_Halep punched her ticket to the semi-finals of the WTA Canada tournament for the fourth straight yearhttps://t.co/DrWdvr8qMz
— FirstpostSports (@FirstpostSports) August 11, 2018
American Sloane Stephens faced little resistance in her 6-2 6-2 win over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova in a match that took a little over an hour to complete.
With the win Stephens advances to her second consecutive Rogers Cup semi-final after falling to Caroline Wozniacki last year.
The 25-year-old U.S. Open champion will look to add her second hard court title of the year after she won the Miami Open in March.
Simona #Halep feels 'better and stronger' after beating Caroline #Garcia to reach #RogersCup semi-finals. https://t.co/vYrZZluzGI pic.twitter.com/LIHXz9jI2s
— The National Sport (@NatSportUAE) August 11, 2018
But to do so she will have to get past defending champion Elina Svitolina after she dispatched Elise Mertens 7-5 6-3 on Friday.
The fifth-seeded Ukrainian fired five aces and won 71 percent of her first serve points to book her ticket to the semis.
