WTA: Double strike or premiere? Halep against Bertens for Cincinnati title

Kiki Bertens is on the brink of her greatest career success: The Dutch player will play against world number one Simona Halep in the final of the WTA Premier 5 tournament on Sunday.

Kiki Bertens, so the common opinion in the tennis circus, is basically a sand specialist for whom the season after the French Open will be very long. After all, the Dutchwoman won all her tournaments, two of them in Nuremberg.

Now, at the latest since the quarter-final entry in Wimbledon, where Berten’s close defeat to Julia Görges, this fairy tale has come to an end. And at the North American hard court tournaments Bertens is doing better again: While she won the quarter-finals in Ashleigh Barty last week in Montréal, the 26-year-old from Wateringen, Cincinnati, faces her greatest career success: the title at the WTA Premier 5 event in the US state of Ohio.

Bertens continued her triumphant progress in Cincinnati, beating Petra Kvitova in the semi-final round as the fifth top ten player within two weeks. The Czech was already outnumbered in Montreal. Smooth at the time, a tough affair developed in Cincinnati, which the outsider won in three sets.

Bertens attributed her progress to her hard work with coach Raimon Sluiter. She was fit as never before in her career, which was on the verge a few years ago: A tumour was found at Kiki Bertens that turned out to be benign after a long period of uncertainty.

In the final of Cincinnati, the world’s first Simona Halep is waiting for you. The Romanian had already reached the final last year, winning only one game against Garbine Muguruza. Halep came to Ohio with the tournament victory in Montréal, in the semi-final against Aryna Sabalenka she showed her fighting spirit as always. And playfully quite offensive.

Despite the efforts in Canada and now in Cincinnati, Halep goes into the final (8pm, live on DAZN and in our live scores) as the favourite. The world’s number one has won three of four games. Bertens’ only success in 2012 was at the Moroccan festival. On sand, of course.