Simona Halep is set to compete in her second final of the clay court season as she takes on Elina Svitolina in the finals of the Italian Open 2017. The Romanian tennis star goes into this final on the back of winning her first title of 2017 as she won the Madrid Open by defeating Kristina Mladenovic.
Her opponent Svitolina has also been really impressive in 2017 so far, having already won three titles this year. The Ukrainian tennis player won the Taiwan Open, the Dubai Tennis Championship and the Istanbul Open and will be determined to add a fourth title to her name on Sunday (May 21).
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This meeting between Halep and Svitolina is set to be the first meeting between the two and the match could go either way with Halep slowly staring to play her best tennis but Svitolina has proven to be the more consistent player.
Halep struggled during the start of the 2017 as she suffered early exits at Shenzhen Open, the Australian Open and at St Petersburg but as the season progressed, her performances also improved. Prior to her win at the Madrid Open, she reached the semi-finals of the Stuttgart Open and the quarter-finals in Miami.
On her road to the finals, Halep defeated Laura Siegemund, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Anett Kontaveit and Kiki Bertens to make it to the Italian open 2017 finals and her only real test so far this tournament came against Pavlyuchenkova, against whom she dropped her only set of the tournament.
As for her opponent, Svitolina too has dropped just one set so far this tournament and it was against Mona Barthel in the round of 16. She lost the first set 6-3 but when on to dominate her opponent in the final two sets winning 6-0, 6-0. Apart from Barthel, she defeated Alize Cornet, Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza to make it to the finals.
One could say that Svitolina is going into this match with a slight advantage as she did not really have to play in the semi-finals against Muguruza. The two did play five games over all with Svitolina leading 4-1 in the first set but an injury forced Muguruza to retire.
Speaking ahead of her second final of the year, Halep said that she was really confident after her win in Madrid and was hoping to add another title to her name.
"I feel happy we could finish actually. It's really tough to stop because of the rain but here we are, I'm in the final and it's really nice. I feel very confident and coming from Madrid with the title makes me stronger on court, also mentally... I feel great and just want to keep playing and why not try to win this title," Eurosport quoted Halep as saying.
As for Svitolina, the Ukrainian tennis star did not talk much about her final against Halep but she will definitely want to win her fourth title of the year but she seemed more concerned about the well being of Muguruza.
"I want to say a fast recovery to Garbine, she has such a big tournament ahead in Roland Garros. It's going to be very tough for her and hopefully she will recover very quickly. I am still a little bit shocked," Svitolina said.
Where to watch
The Italian Open women's final between Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina is set to start at 1:00pm local time, 4:30pm IST and 12:00pm BST.
TV and live streaming information
India: TV: No live coverage. Live Streaming: No coverage.
USA: TV: Tennis Channel. Live Streaming: Tennis Channel Live.
UK: TV: Sky Sports 3/HD. Live streaming: Sky Go.
Global live stream: Live tennis.
