Soccer-Suarez Navarro beats Halep to reach Italian Open final

By Jacopo Lo Monaco ROME, May 16 (Reuters) - Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro beat Romania's Simona Halep 2-6 6-3 7-5 at the Italian Open to reach her ninth career final on Saturday. "It was such a tough match from a physical standpoint," Suarez Navarro told SuperTennis TV. "The biggest improvement I've made this year is in my mind." The Spaniard, who leads the tour this year in wins with 31, won the opening two games but once Halep settled down she started to dominate the rallies with her precise ground strokes. The Romanian reeled off six straight games to take the opening set. An easy miss off of a bounced overhead in the third game of the following set seemed to rattle Halep's confidence as she became more tentative, especially on her forehand. Suarez Navarro took advantage to take the lead as Halep's frustration became clearly visible after she cracked her racket in distress in the sixth game. With more time to hit, the Spaniard forced a decider repeatedly running Halep around the court with her breath-taking one-handed backhand. Neither player could hold serve in the first eight games of the decider before Halep led to lead 5-4. Resiient Suarez Navarro then got her service game together and after breaking again to lead 6-5, finally got over the line with her third match point. She will face the winner of the all-Russian semi between two-time champion Maria Sharapova and qualifier Daria Gavrilova. (Editing by Justin Palmer)