It was the second big match in the past few months against Simona Halep that Sloane Stephens let get away.
Those kinds of defeats leave scars.
But tennis, and specifically, women’s tennis, nonetheless emerged with a big win in Montreal at the Rogers Cup, with Halep and Stephens making it clear they are now the rivalry to watch on the WTA Tour.
The women’s game is absolutely dying for something like this, and it’s not like a superb rivalry comes along every day. Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova set a standard with their 80 career meetings. Billie Jean King and Margaret Court locked horns on and off the court. Steffi Graf and Monica Seles played a long series of heated match.
The most recent rivalry, meanwhile, has been Williams vs. Williams. The tennis was quite often superb, but it still left something to be desired in that Venus and Serena could hardly be described as ferocious rivals.
To say Halep and Stephens are already at that level would be a stretch. But in a long, punishing and classic match in the Rogers Cup women’s final on Sunday, all the elements that define great rivalries were there. Both women were left exhausted at various points after long, bruising rallies, and the match had a wide variety of changes of pace and momentum swings.
“One more twist,” noted Sportsnet commentator Tracy Austin when Stephens broke Halep’s serve late in the match.
Halep finally finished off Stephens with an ace down the middle after the 25-year-old American had saved three match points. Fittingly, it required a shot that Stephens couldn’t get her racquet on, because otherwise both women spent almost three hours refusing to wilt and getting back almost every shot sent their way.
The final score was 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, and given that Stephens had four set points in the first set and couldn’t convert, it was reminiscent of their meeting in this year’s French Open final when Stephens led Halep by a set and a break but couldn’t finish her off.
By the third set on Sunday, Halep was getting treatment on a sore foot and both women were using ice vests to fend off the effects of the ferocious on-court temperatures. Halep, the world’s No. 1 player, led the third set 2-0, but then Stephens fought back to equal the match, and it looked like this time she would outlast her opponent for the first time since 2014.
But then Halep rattled off three straight games, and despite that speed wobble at the end, managed to get across the finish line.
“I didn’t give up,” said Halep. “That’s why I’m really happy right now.”
It was the ninth meeting between the two women, and Halep now owns a 7-2 edge in the series. Stephens, the reigning U.S. Open champion and No. 3 player in the world, needs to turn the tables on the Romanian if this is to become a true rivalry over the next few years.
Stephens had been dominant throughout the Rogers Cup, and hadn’t dropped a set or even played a tiebreak going into the final. But Halep offers a unique combination of speed, fitness and aggression on the women’s tour, and it looked in the early going like Halep was going to decisively dismiss Stephens.
Still, both women dug in, and needed their encouragement of their coaches during on-court visits to stay focused. Stephens’ coach, Kamau Murray, urged her not to back up and to force the play more to Halep’s forehand. Halep’s coach, Darren Cahill, has been successfully winning a battle with Halep not to get negative when things don’t go her way on court, and he delivered the same message on Sunday.
“Nothing good comes without hard work,” he kept reminding her.
In a match in which neither woman could dictate play with their serve or venture to the net frequently, it was a battle from the baseline for the most part. Halep struggled with seven double faults, but blistered an ace down the middle on the final point of the hard fought contest.
Halep’s victory made her the undisputed No. 1 player in the world, with the precise status of Serena Williams, who pulled out of the Rogers Cup at the last moment, still uncertain. Halep has battled with Angelique Kerber, Karolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza and Caroline Wozniacki over the past two years for the top spot, but her Rogers Cup cemented her hold atop the women’s rankings with the U.S. Open just around the corner.
Stephens, meanwhile, may be her most dangerous challenger. More matches between the two would be something tennis fans could savour.
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