Mr. Sergio Cruz

The first Brazilian to reach a singles final in a WTA 1000, Beatriz Haddad Maia is fighting for the biggest title of her career this Sunday in Toronto. Bia faces Romanian Simona Halep, former world number 1 and two-time tournament champion, from 2:30 p.m. (Brasilia). It will be the fourth duel between them on the circuit and the third alone this season. The game will be broadcast from ESPN 2 and streaming service Star+.

The history of Bia’s clash with Halep favors the Romanian, who leads 2-1. But the Brazilian won the most recent duel, during the title campaign on grass in Birmingham in June. Halep won the first time they met, in 2017 at Wimbledon, as well as at this year’s Australian Open.

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The 26-year-old from São Paulo won her first two WTA 250s this season, on the grass courts of Nottingham and Birmingham. She also has a vice-champion in Seoul in 2017. Simona Halep is 30 years old, already has 23 titles and will play her 42nd final on the circuit. In the WTA 1000 tournaments alone, the Romanian has eight wins and nine other finalists. In Canada, he won the 2016 and 2018 editions, when the tournament was held in Montreal.

“Simona is a very competitive player. For me, she is one of the most competitive on the circuit. She is a champion and a very hard working person. I know it will be a very difficult battle, but I will enjoy and leave it all on the court. be aggressive. I’ll be on a big court against a top tennis player and in a WTA 1000 final. It’s time to play my best tennis,” Bia said, projecting Sunday’s showdown. .

Bia cola in the top 15 and gets closer to the Finals group
The campaign to the final in Toronto yields 585 ranking points, including 900 points for the champion. The prize money for the winner of the Canadian tournament is $439,700 and $259,100 for the second.

Bia started the week with the best mark of his career, 24th place, and will enter the top 20 after the tournament. She goes back to 16th place and can end the week in 14th place in the standings. Already in the race for a place in the WTA Finals, considering only the results of 2022, the Brazilian started the week in 20th position and is already approaching the top 10 of the season. The eight best of the year qualify for the final, which has not yet taken place.

“I think the rankings and the results just reflect how hard my team and I have worked over the past few years. I’m very happy and proud of them, and I know I’m not alone. Brazil. “I I had set myself the goal of being in the top 20 by the end of the US Open and I’m glad I achieved it. Goals serve as motivation, to know where we want to go, not pressure. The days are what motivate me.”

After defeating aggressive rivals, Bia faces a different style of play
During the week, Bia beat four of the top 20 players: the streak started with Leylah Fernandez, and overtook world number 1 Iga Swiatek, as well as Belinda Bencic and Karolina Pliskova. But after facing more aggressively styled rivals including Swiatek and Pliskova, the Brazilian must prepare to withstand Halep’s strong back, who can take longer rallies frequently, forcing opponents to make more mistakes.

This is how the The Romanian turned the tables on Jessica Pegula in the semis collapsed. “I changed tactics a bit, the game in the first set was too fast and she was hitting the ball too hard. I wasn’t getting the rhythm but I calmed down and managed to push it away a bit from the bottom line and it worked,” Halep assessed.

And speaking of solidity and consistency, you have to be careful of the wind which was decisive in several matches of the tournament, including Bia’s victory over Swiatek last Thursday. In the words of the world number 1the Brazilian won because she served very well and adapted better to the day’s weather conditions.

“I was about to stop playing,” says the Romanian
Already the experienced 30-year-old tennis player has reached her first final since she started training with Frenchman Patrick Mouratoglou, former coach of Serena Williams. The Romanian has already been number 1 for 64 weeks and now occupies the 15th position in the ranking. She returns to the top 10. If she is champion, she returns to sixth place.

“I hope we can reach more finals in the future, but I thank him for being by my side. He motivates me to fight and win every game I play. It’s great to have him in the team,” said the Romanian. “Before working with him, I was very weak with my motivation. I was about to quit playing tennis. So he brought that fire and motivation back. He believed that I could still play good tennis and transferred that to me. So we’re a good team and I’m confident in what we’re doing.”

Bia lives with the best and is already more studied by his rivals
This season, Bia has won seven of the eight games she has played against top-20 players, and she already has ten career wins against opponents at this level. In addition, he won the three matches he played against the top 5 in 2022. The tennis player’s coach, Rafael Paciaroni spoke in July with tennis brazil about how much higher frequency of clashes against big names played a fundamental role in its development.

“The environment is decisive in the evolution of the human being, and in this case of Bia, of the player. Training, playing, living with the best players in the world forces you to be constantly in search of your best version. and attentive to new learning and new solutions to new problems. It forces you to stay focused longer,” Pacaroni said.

“These days, with technology and gaming analytics and statistics companies, virtually everyone has information about everyone. The more matches you play, the more information about you will be available to the world. This is why we have to work very well every day so that our quality is up to the new challenges”.

When she lost to Halep in Australia, Bia learned her lesson
In the match against Halep at the Australian Open in January, Bia assimilated the lessons of the hard defeat by 6/2 and 6/0, and it was important for her to be able to better face the cadors of the circuit. “Halep played a great match. She was superior in every aspect. Every moment of the match she worked better than me. I didn’t do a good job, both tennis and mentally,” said the tennis brazil in January.

“I was clear on what I had to do, I knew from the start the strategy and how to deal with those moments. But I couldn’t handle the game well. When you face players of that level, they don’t won’t give a gap. overcome to face Halep. It was a Bia vs. Bia match and I couldn’t turn the key. But I’ve matured and I think my greatest quality is the ability to learn and pick myself back up. . I’m very strong and resilient and I’m sure it was just a pebble in my path. I have to keep doing my job, improve what I need to do and move on.”

Remember the clashes between Bia and Halep on the circuit.

2022
Birmingham – Grass – Semi-Final – Beatriz Haddad Maia, 6/3 2/6 6/4
Australian Open – synthetic – second round – Simona Halep, 6/2 6/0
2017
Wimbledon – grass – second round – Simona Halep, 7/5 6/3