Tennis: Mergea advances to Apia International Sydney men’s doubles final, Halep stops in women’s semifinal

Tennis: Mergea advances to Apia International Sydney men’s doubles final, Halep stops in women’s semifinal

Romanian Florin Mergea and Indian Rohan Bopanna advanced on Friday to the men’s doubles final of the Apia Sydney International tournament, by defeating 7-6 (8), 6-4 Thomaz Bellucci (Brazil)/Leonardo Mayer (Argentina).

It is the first tournament of 2016 for Mergea and Bopanna, seeded fourth in Sydney. Their opponents in the final are Jamie Murray (UK)/Bruno Soares (Brazil), who won their semifinal against Polish Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski by 7-5, 2-6, 10-3.

Also on Friday, Romanian Simona Halep (WTA No. 2) lost the women’s semifinal of the Apia Sydney International tournament to Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova (WTA No. 25) by 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3.

The match had been interrupted by rain on Thursday, with Halep leading 5-4 in the first set. She eventually lost after three hours and 45 minutes of actual play. The two players’ record against each other is now tied at 3-3. More…