WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- World number one Simona Halep of Romania reached the WTA Cincinnati Open final after taking down Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets on Saturday.
After lifting the trophy last week in Montreal Open, Halep will compete in another championship match -- her sixth final of the year -- as she faces Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands for the Cincinnati title on Sunday.
Sabalenka, who took down three top 20 players on her way to the semifinals, was not on fire and struggled to keep pace with Halep, who needed just an hour and 15 minutes to notch the 6-3, 6-4 victory.
"It was a big challenge for me to have an opponent that is so young and winning so good matches and tough matches before with confidence very high," Halep said of her opponent. "It was a big challenge. And today when I stepped on the court, I said that I have just to relax and to play my game, which I did."
"I did actually exactly how I felt on court I could do that. That's why maybe I was able to win. And also mentally I was strong."
While Sabalenka, 20, looked to find positives from the match and highlighted her incredible week of tennis in Cincinnati.
"I know I was too nervous in the match," Sabalenka admitted. "Next time I just want to try to be more calm on the court."
"I won a lot of good players, and I show great tennis. It's bad that not today, but I'm going to try to keep my level and actually to keep trying to be much better on the court. It was a fantastic week for me."
