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The French Open champion showed no signs of
fatigue following her marathon three-set win over Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova on Wednesday, running down balls to extend points
and wear down the slower Garcia.
After a shaky start Halep won three straight games to take the
first set and dominated the second set behind pinpoint serving
and stout defense.
Next up for Halep is Australian Barty, who strolled to a 6-3 6-1
win over Kiki Bertens in their quarter-final match earlier in
the day.
The 15th-seeded Barty won 80 percent of her first serve points
and broke Bertens four times as she cruised to victory.
Saturday's semi-final will mark the first career meeting between
Halep and Barty.
American Sloane Stephens faced little resistance in her 6-2 6-2
win over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova in a match that took a
little over an hour to complete.
With the win Stephens advances to her second consecutive Rogers
Cup semi-final after falling to Caroline Wozniacki last year.
The 25-year-old U.S. Open champion will look to add her second
hard court title of the year after she won the Miami Open in
March.
But to do so she will have to get past defending champion Elina
Svitolina after she dispatched Elise Mertens 7-5 6-3 on Friday.
The fifth-seeded Ukrainian fired five aces and won 71 percent of
her first serve points to book her ticket to the semis.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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