TOP 25 talents, Simona Halep and Elise Mertens have booked their places in the 2020 WTA Tour’s Prague Open in their first respective tournaments since the restart. The raging tournament favourite from the get-go and the only top 10 ranked player in the draw, Halep was too good for her Romanian compatriot, Irina-Camelia Begu getting up 7-6 6-3. Mertens had an equally tough encounter against the last home nation representative left in the draw – Kristyna Pliskova – 7-5 7-6 to win through and take on Halep in the final.

Begu was up against it from the start, having to first finish off her quarter final against Sara Sorribes Tormo, leading 6-2 0-1 after rain delayed the match to the following day. Rather than closing it out in an easy straight sets, the Spaniard pushed Begu to the end, and the pair spent a further hour and 40 minutes on court before the Romanian could finally take on her top ranked compatriot, 6-2 4-6 6-2.

When she did, she showed she was up for the fight, but class won out as Halep got up 7-6 6-3 in an hour and 31 minutes. It was far from entirely clinical for the world number two as Halep served up eight double faults to go with her four aces, but her 68.9 per cent efficiency, coupled with her 69 per cent success rate off her first serve, was enough to help her through the match. Crucially, she saved six of 10 break points, whilst taking all her six chances when forcing a break point opportunity on Begu.

While the lower ranked Begu did well off Halep’s second serve – 68.4 per cent success – she was not able to stop the world number two breaking her those half a dozen times which was the difference. Though the result did not go her way, it will give her confidence she was able to take a player of Halep’s quality to a tiebreaker and a tight second set.

Meanwhile Mertens took an hour and 56 minutes to finally put away Pliskova. The Belgian had been forced into a two-hour and 17-minute slog the day before by Canadian Eugenie Bouchard before getting up, whilst her Czech opponent spent just 38 minutes on the clay to trail 2-5 before Ana Bogdan was forced to retire due to injury. This kept her fresh for her semi-final, but like the other match, Mertens was just that bit classier.

The top 25 Belgian controlled her service game with seven aces and only three double faults, serving at 67.9 per cent and winning 76.4 per cent of those first serve points. With a 53.8 per cent efficiency off her second serve, she was hard to stop, and even saved seven of a possible eight break points. That was not without Pliskova pushing her higher ranked opponent to the finish line, saving seven of the nine chances from the Belgian, and taking her to a tiebreak and a 12-game second set, but the serving efficiency was key and in the end, Mertens got up in the tight contest.

Halep and Mertens have played four times, with the Romanian leading the world number 23 with a 3-1 head-to-head. One does not have to look too far back for the last encounter between the pair, with Halep defeating Mertens back in January in the fourth round at Melbourne Park, 6-4 6-4. Mertens won the previous encounter to win the title at Doha 3-6 6-4 6-3 last year, with Halep claiming a couple of easy straight sets wins on the clay. They could be the most telling, though the Madrid and Roland Garros victories were both two years ago.