By Chris Oddo | Saturday October 7, 2017
The monkey is finally off her back.
Simona Halep defeated Jelena Ostapenko, 6-2, 6-4, on Saturday at the China Open and as a result the Romanian will climb to No.1 in the WTA rankings on Monday.
She will become the 25th No.1 in the history of the WTA, and the fifth player to hold the No.1 ranking this season.
The 26-year-old had endured a season of near misses that saw her reach one victory from the No.1 ranking three times and two wins away another time from June through August.
Perhaps most tantalizing of all was her loss in the Roland Garros final where she squandered a set and break lead against Ostapenko before falling in heartbreaking fashion in the final. She was also stung at Wimbledon, where she she was again a single victory from No.1 and fell to Johanna Konta in the three-set quarterfinal and at Cincinnati, where she fell to Garbiñe Muguruza at the final hurdle in the Cincinnati final.
It was beginning to feel like she’d never get there, but here fortunes turned this week in Beijing as she ended a personal seven-match losing streak against Maria Sharapova in the round of 16 before avenging her Roland Garros loss against Ostapenko on Saturday night with a command performance that saw her save one of two break points and win 75 percent of her first-serve points against the Latvian.
Halep will face Caroline Garcia in the final. The Frenchwoman strengthened her bid to reach the WTA Finals in Singapore alive with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Petra Kvitova.