Simona Halep books spot in Prague Open final

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep advanced on Saturday to the final of the WTA Prague Open after defeating her fellow national Irina Begu 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Top seed Halep (28, WTA No. 2) clinched the victory in one hour and 31 minutes, her seventh in just as many encounters with 29-year-old Begu (WTA No. 82).

The first set was evenly balanced until the second half, when Begu managed a break and took the lead 5-3. Halep recovered and restored parity at 5-5, and eventually prevailed in the tiebreak 7-2.

In the second set, a dominant Halep led 2-0 and 3-1, Begu leveled the score at 3-3, but succumbed in the end to tiredness (having finished her quarter-final match earlier in the day), and the reigning Wimbledon champion won the set 6-3.

In the seven duels between Halep and Begu, the latter only won one set, 6-0 in the 2016 Madrid quarterfinals.

Begu advanced to the semifinals on Saturday, after defeating Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in a match continued from Thursday night.

Simona Halep will play in the final Belgium's Elise Mertens, seed No. 3, who defeated Kristyna Pliskova (Czech Republic) 7-5, 7-6 (4).

Halep leads 3-1 the head-to-head with Mertens (24, No. 23 WTA). The two last faced off at the beginning of the year in the Australian Open round of sixteen, when the Romanian won 6-4, 6-4.

Simona Halep secured a check of $14,000 and 180 WTA points, while Begu gets $8,035 and 110 WTA points.