Romania’s Simona Halep fought off a late rally from Coco Gauff to safe a nervy 6-4 7-6(2) win on Friday and advance to the Canadian Open semi-finals for a fifth time.
Twice champion Halep, up a set and main 4-1 within the second, seemed headed for a simple passage into the final 4.
However Gauff dug in and rallied to pressure the second set to a tiebreak earlier than Fifteenth-seeded Halep end off the tenth seed within the tiebreak to keep up her dominance over the American.
In 4 profession conferences, together with three this 12 months, Gauff has but to take a set off Halep, who subsequent faces one other American in seventh seed Jessica Pegula - a 6-3 6-3 winner over Kazakh Yulia Putintseva.
“I’m actually happy with the best way I stayed there sturdy mentally,” mentioned Halep, after reaching her twenty ninth profession semi-final at a WTA 1000 occasion - greater than some other participant.
“And I fought for each level which was actually vital as a result of she’s doing the identical factor. Mentally I’m sturdy even when I struggled a bit bit within the second set.”
Halep actually struggled within the second as she twice served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 solely to be damaged every time.
However the twice Grand Slam winner refocused within the tiebreak to cease the competition going to a 3rd and registered her thirty sixth win this season behind solely Iga Swiatek (48) and Ons Jabeur (37).
The 30-year-old additionally needed to wrestle along with her serve, committing eight double faults whereas giving French Open finalist Gauff loads of probabilities with 12 break alternatives.
