Montreal: Romania’s Simona Halep rallied for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday to set up a semifinal showdown with Angelique Kerber at the WTA Montreal tournament.
Halep, seeded fifth, will have a chance to avenge her quarterfinal Wimbledon defeat at the hands of Australian Open champion Kerber, who reached the final four in Montreal with an emphatic 6-2, 6-2 victory over teenager Daria Kasatinka.
Once Halep shook off some early nerves, she was able to pressure the Russian veteran’s serve and was rewarded when Kuznetsova surrendered an early break in the second set with a double fault.
Halep seized control for good with an early break in the third to keep alive her hopes of improving on her runner-up finish in Canada last year — when she retired from the final against Belinda Bencic with an illness.
While Kerber encountered little resistance against Russia’s Kasatinka she said Halep would be another matter. In the day’s other quarterfinals, World No.121 Kristina Kucova’s fairytale run continued on Friday night with a straight set win over 15th seeded Johanna Konta.
The Slovakian qualifier, who ousted Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in the third round, fashioned a 6-4, 6-3 victory to end Konta’s impressive recent run and quash her hopes of becoming the first British player in 32 years to reach the top 10.
In Toronto, Milos Raonic couldn’t hide his disappointment. The fourth-seeded Canadian used the word repeatedly when answering questions after a 6-4, 6-4 loss to France’s Gael Monfils on Friday night in the Rogers Cup quarterfinals.
“Disappointment is the right word,” Raonic said. “In tennis, unless you’re the guy winning the tournaments most of the weeks, which there’s very few guys that are doing that, you’re losing quite a bit. So it’s very important to make the most of those, try to learn, try to be better from those situations. That’s my next objective.”
The 10th-seeded Monfils will face top-ranked Novak Djokovic on Saturday at York University’s Aviva Centre. Djokovic beat fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych 7-6 (6), 6-4. Second seed Stan Wawrinka topped South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-1, 6-3, and third-seeded Kei Nishikori beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
