Australia’s Ashleigh Barty has bowed out of the Canadian Open after suffering a straight-sets semi-final defeat to world No.1 Simona Halep.
The top-seeded Romanian cruised to her third career final in Canada with a 6-4 6-2 victory over the error-prone Australian in just one hour and 10 minutes in Montreal on Saturday.
The timing of the match, in the afternoon, upset the French Open champion after her Friday evening quarter-final win.
“If you look at the schedule, I think I’m the only one person and player who has the worst schedule during the week,” she told the Montreal Gazette.
“My opponent has already six hours at the hotel resting, and I just finished the match and I’m doing now these (interviews),” Halep said at 9pm local time.
“I feel like today (Friday) I should have played second match in the night, and also tomorrow (Saturday) at 6 (pm), not at 1.”
Barty, who faced Halep for the first time in her career, won just one of seven break point chances she created and racked up 37 unforced errors.
The 2016 Rogers Cup champion won four of the match’s first five games, and broke Barty twice before the 22-year-old Australian registered her first, and lone, break in the sixth game. She held serve for the remainder of the set.
The second set went much quicker with Halep winning seven of the last eight games.
Halep, will now meet the winner of the late semi-final between defending champion Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and US Open winner Sloane Stephens for the title on Sunday.
The defeat must have been tough for Barty, who only lost a single set over the previous four rounds.
The world No.16 eclipsed her previous best at the Canadian tournament, a place in the last 16 in 2017.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
I had to smile when Simona Halep complained about the scheduling of her match. Yes, she didn't get the best of it, but the Rogers Cup organizers do have more to consider than Halep's progress even if she is currently ranked 1. I wonder if Ash Barty made any complaints about being asked to play her singles semi and then immediately go back on the same court to play her doubles semi (which she won with Demi Schuurs). I hope she did as it seems that is more of a threat to her health, creating more chance of injury, than Halep's situation.