ROME: Fourth seed Elina Svitolina faced little resistance from Simona Halep in a 6-0, 6-4 win Sunday to defend her Italian Open title.

Just like in last year’s final, Halep appeared bothered by an injury.

The top-ranked Romanian called a trainer onto the court for an apparent back problem while trailing 2-3 in the second set then exited the court for treatment under a medical timeout.

“I was a little bit too stiff with my body and I couldn’t stay in the rallies,” Halep said. “The muscles were stiff. I couldn’t run.”

Last year, Halep rolled her ankle in the final and lost a set lead to Svitolina.

World number one Halep came through a tough three-set semi-final against Maria Sharapova on Saturday and was well off the pace, failing to coax even a single break point opportunity in a match that lasted just 67 minutes.

“It’s amazing that I could come and defend my title here,” Svitolina said. “It’s really something very, very special for me.”

Svitolina, the world number four, has now successfully defended three career titles, in Baku, Dubai and also Rome; she also won in Brisbane and Dubai this season to take her 2018 title total to three.

The win also marked Svitolina’s 12th career title on what was her eighth final in succession.

“It was a really good match, from my side,” Svitolina said. “I dominated. I was trying to put lots of pressure on Simona with my game, tried to really take the ball early and open the court.”

On current form the Ukrainian, who beat unseeded Estonian Anna Kontaveit in the semi-finals on Saturday, will be surely ranked among the favourites to triumph at the French Open. The Roland Garros showpiece begins on May 27, and Svitolina insisted that she would not get ahead of herself.

“I will try to take one match at a time, it’s very important in a Grand Slam,” she added. “It’s very tricky so we’ll see how it goes, but definitely I’m going to enjoy [going to] Roland Garros on a high note.”

Later on Sunday, Rafael Nadal was aiming for a record-extending eighth Rome title against defending champion Alexander Zverev.

On Saturday, Nadal turned on the style to beat his old rival Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 while Zverev overcame fourth seed Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-6 (15-13) 7-5 in the other semi-final.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018