Kontaveit faces Simona Halep in Transylvania Open final Sunday
Anett Kontaveit is through to the final of the Transylvania Open after beating Swedish player Rebecca Peterson in straight sets, 6:3, 6:1. She faces former world number one Simona Halep in the final, who as a Romanian, but not Transylvanian, will be playing before a home crowd.
This is the sixth final of the season the on-form Estonian, who has won 25 out of her last 27 matches, has reached, and she will face Halep on Sunday.
Halep, now ranked 18th by the WTA, beat Ukrainian Marta Kostjuk in straight sets, 6:0, 6:1. Kostjuk had convincingly seen off British (and ethnically half-Romanian) star and U.S. Open winner Emma Raducanu in the semi-finals, 6:2, 6:1.
"There is definitely be a difficult final ahead, it doesn't matter against which opponent. But I enjoyed myself on court and I'm ready for a tough struggle," Kontaveit said after her game with Peterson.
Recent successes have seen Kontaveit rise to 14th place in the WTA rankings, her joint-highest placing in the 25-year-old's career so far, while she acquired a new coach in the summer, former top player Dmitry Tursunov.
Kontaveit had overcome Alison van Utvanck (Belgium) 63, 6:4 on Thursday, and Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina, 63:, 6:1, to reach the semis at the BT Arena in Cluj-Napoca, to book her place in the semis.
Set one began in fairly standard processional style, with the Estonian racing to 5:0, but Peterson mounted a mini-comeback of her own, taking the next three games. Nonetheless, Kontaveit took one more game to take the set 6:3.
Set two was a little bit more even in the beginning, the score-line going from 2:0 in Kontaveit's favor, to 3:1, but in fact the Swede only got one more game and, with things standing at 5:2, Kontaveit only needed to bag one more game to take set and match, which she duly did.
The entire encounter lasted just over an hour.
Simply UNSTOPPABLE
— wta (@WTA) October 30, 2021
The Anett-train will be making a final stop at the @TransylvaniaOpn! pic.twitter.com/HILGvZum5i
Kontaveit served up seven aces and committed two double faults to Peterson's five and one.
Kontaveit's first service success rate was actually slightly lower than her opponent's at 63 percent versus 64 percent, but she made up for that by winning 77 percent of points from her first serve and 67 percent from her second; the corresponding figures for Peterson were 63 percent and 29 percent.
Kontaveit realized four out of six service break points; Peterson only clinched one service break point, which she managed to convert.
The Estonian said after the match, when asked about where her relentless good form in recent weeks might be coming from, that it was: "Hard to answer that question, as I don't want to publish my game plan."
"I've felt very good on court. It wasn't as easy today, as the numbers show, I had to fight, and it was a tough game," she added.
The final is played on Sunday.
This article was updated to give details of who Kontaveit faces in Sunday's final.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
