|
The Czech fifth seed will meet Ashleigh Barty
in Saturday's final, after the 12th seeded Australian beat
Estonia's Anett Kontaveit 6-3 6-3 in the other semi-final on a
day that tested the patience with a seemingly endless number of
rain delays.
Pliskova and Romanian Halep played a tight first set, which
Pliskova eventually clinched with some outstanding court
coverage as she used her long reach to chase down a series of
shots by Halep that would have been winners against many a
player.
Suitably buoyed, Pliskova raced through the second set and was
on the brink of victory, up 5-0 when another shower sent the
players to the locker room as the clock struck midnight.
They eventually returned an hour later for Pliskova to close it
out in a near-empty arena.
Earlier, Barty was forced to wait out an hour-long rain delay
before her match and when it started she and 21st seed Kontaveit
were only on the court for about five minutes before weather
halted play again.
They returned about two-and-a-half hours later to play one more
game and then headed back to the locker room for a third rain
delay, this time for two hours.
Barty finally secured the win with an ace on her second match
point, six-and-a-half hours after the original scheduled start.
"I have been here for 12 hours today, but really happy with the
way I was able to come out after the rain delays and kind of get
on the front foot pretty early," said Barty, 22, who has three
career titles.
"I did the best with what I had and was able to get out of some
tight service games at crucial times and get a bit of a roll
on."
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina and Frank
Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ian Ransom/Sudipto Ganguly)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
