Romania's Halep advances to Qatar Total Open singles final

World number three and top seed Simona Halep of Romania on Friday advanced to the women's singles final of the 916,131-USD Qatar Total Open tennis tournament after defeating Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, world number seven, 6-3 3-6 6-4, as she was led 4-1 in the deciding set.

Their head-to-head count is now a 4-4 tie, after Svitolina won the previous three matches, most recently 6-0 6-4 at the 2018 Italian Open women's singles.

Halep, who on Monday will shoot to number two in the WTA singles ranking, scored an ace, double faulted twice, and had a mediocre serve. Svitolina managed two aces, double faulted three times, had more direct winners (30-24) and less unforced errors (35-37).

In the final, Halep, the 2014 Qatar Open semi-finalist and the 2018 runner-up, will play the winner between Germany's Angelique Kerber and Belgian Elise Mertens. For her performance in the tournament, Halep has won 84,850 US dollars and 305 WTA singles points. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mircea Lazaroniu, editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)