Kiki Bertens Stuns Simona Halep To Win Mutua Madrid Open 2019

It was Simona Halep and Kiki Bertens amongst the 64 main draw WTA contestants who made it to the finals at the Mutua Madrid Open 2019. The Dutchwoman, Kiki Bertens outdid the World Number three tennis player 6-4,6-4 in the finals on the Spanish loam. 

The Romanian, Simona Halep opened the match and made a hold by surviving the crosscourt forehands from Kiki Bertens’ end. In the following service game, the World Number three came up with her signature backhand shot.

Simona Halep breaks Bertens’ serve with a forehand down the line winner and takes a 3-1 lead. Erroneous tennis from Halep’s side effaces her previous break as Kiki Bertens was back on serve by avenging for her break.

The practice of exchanging the break of serves continued in the next two games as Halep doubled fault at 4-3 and then Kiki Bertens held her serve to love to make it 4-4. Later, the Dutchwoman held sprinted to take the lead in the opening set and then closed out the set, 6-4.

In the second set, Kiki Bertens continued to keep up her dominance by breaking Halep and later consolidate her break. However, Halep’s footwork and Bertens yanking a wide backhand equalized the set to 2-2. Kiki Bertens broke Halep for the fifth time and aced a lead of 4-2 in the second set. 

Running back and forth on the Spanish clay Simona Halep battled to hold her serve to love and keeps her third title hopes in Madrid alive. Kiki Bertens got a free point as her wide overhead smash directly hit Halep’s knee, which consequently took away double break chances from Halep. Later, Bertens closed out the game with an explosive serve at 5-3. Later she sealed the title with a dropshot on her second championship point.

Last year, the World Number seven, Bertens reached her first Premier Mandatory final in Madrid but she lost to Petra Kvitova in the championship match. This year in Madrid she avenged for her 2018 title loss by taking out the defending champion, Kvitova in straight sets in the quarterfinals. In Madrid, Bertens was broken just six times collectively prior to the finals and did not drop a set in the entire tournament. 

On Monday, Kiki Bertens will create history as she will become the highest-ranked Dutch player ever. She will be ranked number four in the world. This week, Simona Halep was aspiring to enter the 56th week on the pinnacle of the WTA list but, the Dutchwoman denied her by lifting up the title in Madrid. This year, Bertens won her first WTA title at St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy in Russia.