Halep reached her 34th career final by ending her negative trend against Elina Svitolina, beating the Ukrainian after recovering from a 4-1 deficit in the third set. The fourth-seeded Svitolina had three chances to go 5-1 up in the decider, but Halep won five games in a row to triumph 6-3 3-6 6-4.
In the second semifinal on Friday, Belgium’s Mertens beat third seed Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4 2-6 6-1 and reached her biggest career final, in which she will face her third straight Top 10 opponent.
Our photographer Jimmie48 worked at both singles semifinals, as well as at both doubles semifinals which saw fourth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Demi Schuurs set up a final meeting with Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan.