Top seed Simona Halep won her first Italian Open title on Monday after defending champion Karolina Pliskova retired injured while trailing 6-0, 2-1 in the final.

World number two Halep, 28, was competing in her third Rome WTA final, having finished runner-up in 2017 and 2018 on the clay at the Foro Italico.

“Finally after two finals I could win this title,” the Romanian said.

“I love this tournament and I’m really happy to have this beautiful trophy in my hand.

“In 2013 here I started to go in the top in world tennis. I really enjoyed and I realy was happy on court that I could play the semi-finals back then. Since then I have started to play really well.”

 

Continue reading this article on Sports Desk, the new sports website by Times of Malta

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.