Romanian seventh seed Simona Halep booked a final meeting with Italian Alberta Brianti at the 220,000 dollar WTA tournament in Fes on Saturday after seeing off Belgian Kirsten Flipkens 7-5, 6-4 in her semi-final. Brianti made the trophy match following a walkover win over former world number one Dinara Safina. Halep, 19 and ranked 65 in the world, will appear Sunday in only her second career final having lost last year’s showdown here against Czech Iveta Benesova. “It was a difficult match, because she played a different game with slice. But I’m happy that I played good and I found the game to beat her,” said Halep. Ironically it was Safina who stopped Brianti’s run in what was her first ever tour semi-final appearance, at Portoroz in 2009. This time it wasn’t the Russian’s back that caused her trouble, but an upset stomach. “After my match yesterday I had a fever,” Safina tweeted. “It’s sad because I was playing good, but health is more important.” Earlier, Simona Halep beat Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-2, 6-0 on Monday to reach the second round of the Grand Prix SAR. The seventh-seeded Halep, who was runner-up last year, lost only 12 points on her serve and broke her opponent seven times. She next faces Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia. Fourth-seeded Greta Arn of Hungary also advanced after Austria’s Patricia Mayr-Achleitner retired when trailing 6-0, 1-0. Arn is looking for her second title this season following her victory in Auckland in January. But fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany lost 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to Russia’s Ksenia Pervak. Kudryavtseva ralled to beat Nina Bratchikova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in an all-Russian match, despite dropping her own serve four times. Top-seeded Aravane Rezai of France was set to play Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands in her first-round match. Alberta Brianti is enjoying her best run at a tournament this year here in Fes. With back-to-back wins over Laura Paus Tio and Ksenia Pervak, followed by a heart winning win over Melanie Oudin, Brianti is ready for her final test- Simona Halep. Romanian Simona Halep’s most notable run came at the season’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open. Halep also picked up a win in Indian Wells before going down to Rome champion Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the next round. Halep took out one of the most inform players in the circuit, Belgian Kirsten Flipkens to enter the finals in Fes. Both players have contested one match before which Halep won with a 6-1, 6-1 scoreline. Brianti, however is looking in strong position to avenge her loss and open her title account in WTA circuit.
