Tennis

Halep beats Kvitova to reach Madrid Open final

Published May. 10, 2014 8:33 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

MADRID (AP) Fourth-seeded Simona Halep rallied in hot conditions Saturday to beat former champion Petra Kvitova 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2 and reach the Madrid Open final.

Kvitova, the 2011 winner, was on course for victory after winning a first set tiebreaker and going 2-0 up in the second against a frustrated Halep.

But Kvitova hit 66 unforced errors and that inconsistency caught up with her as Halep recovered, with the Romanian hitting 22 winners and breaking her Czech opponent four times over the last two sets.

Kvitova struggled in the final set, looking sapped of energy by the close of the match which lasted more than 2 1/2 hours on clay at the Magic Box center.

share