By reaching the Mutua Madrid Open final Simona Halep became the first WTA player in the history of the tournament to have reached the title match three times and on Saturday the Romanian went a step further, beating Kristina Mladenovic to become the champion on the clay of the Spanish capital for the second year in a row.
The third-seeded Halep had to work hard to get past the 14th-seeded Mladenovic, who forced the third set despite appearing to struggle with a back injury. France’s Mladenovic, fresh off the big Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final, didn’t have enough left in her tank in the decider and Halep prevailed 7-5 6-7(5) 6-2.