Halep therefore exacted revenge for her defeat by Haddad Maya at Birmingham in June by winning the 1000-point competition, which was her ninth title overall and twenty-fourth of her career.
While playing in her first final since winning the 250th Melbourne tournament in January and her biggest final since winning the 2020 Rome tournament, Halep, who has won two major titles at Grand Slam competitions (Roland Garros in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019), was aware that she had been injured for months.
The latter affects her thigh and shoulder.
With Sunday’s crowning being her third at the Canadian Open (the venue alternates between Toronto and Montreal), Halep, who is ranked 15th in the world, was assured of her return to the top 10 club in the WTA rankings, which will be revealed on Monday.
Haddad Maya, who is currently ranked 24 in the world, became the first Brazilian to reach a tournament’s final while also adding two WTA titles to her resume, both of which she won this year in June in Birmingham and Nottingham.
Haddad Maya would afterwards become the first player in her career to reach the top 20 tennis players in the international rankings.
Haddad Maya made history in this competition, most notably by defeating world No. 1 Eva Swientek of Poland to become the first Brazilian player to do so. She then defeated Swiss Belinda Bencic and Czech Karolina Pliskova on her way to the final.
After taking a 3-0 lead in the first set, Haddad Maya started the match off flawlessly. However, the Romanian came back hard and won six straight games that were important, the first one going in her favour.
In the second set, the Brazilian continued to dominate, moving ahead 4-0 before taking it 6-2.
The more seasoned Halep broke her opponent’s serve twice in the crucial third to take a 4-1 lead and go on to win 6-3 after two hours and sixteen minutes.
In their fourth encounter, this is Halep’s third triumph over the Brazilian.
Halep exacts retribution on Maya’s blacksmith before wrapping up her journey in Toronto.
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