Romania’s tennis ace Simona Halep will play two finals at Shenzhen Open

World No.1 Simona Halep may finish the first tournament of the season with two trophies, as she has qualified for both the singles and doubles finals of the Shenzhen Open. On Friday, January 5, she qualified for her second career final at the Shenzhen Open, after defeating compatriot and No.4 seed Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4. Halep has previously made it to the singles final in Shenzhen in 2015. "It was a tough match, I know that she's a very strong player and in the second set, you could see that she was improving her game. I was strong enough to hit the ball [well] in the end...and I'm really proud with my victory today. It was a tough one," Halep said, cited by Wtatennis.com. In the final, Halep will play against Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova, who defeated Russian Maria Sharapova in the semifinal, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Later the same day, the Romanian team made up of Simona Halep and Irina Begu also qualified in the doubles final after a 6-2, 6-7 (4), 10-6 victory against the Russian/German duo Anna Blinkova/Nicola Geuer. The Shenzhen Open tournament in China will end on January 6. It has total prize money of over USD 626,000. Romania’s Simona Halep wins Thailand championship, receives substantial prize Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com (photo source: Shenzhen Open on Facebook)