Romania's Simona Halep returns the ball to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus during their Dubai Tennis Championships quarter-final match in the Gulf emirate on Feb 20, 2020. (KARIM SAHIB / AFP)

PRAGUE - Top seed Simona Halep of Romania and Belgian Elise Mertens, seeded third, have set up a final clash at the WTA Prague Open after their respective semifinal win on Saturday.

Mertens went into the semifinal with a perfect record over her opponent, beating her in both previous meetings

Halep overcome compatriot Irina-Camelia Begu 7-6 (2), 6-3 in one and a half hours while Mertens fought past home favorite Kristyna Pliskova 7-5, 7-6 (4) in the first semifinal of the day.

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World number two Halep collected four aces but committed eight double faults to Begu's two. Thanks to her more efficient first sever and success of saving all six break points, Halep was able to book the final ticket.

Mertens went into the semifinal with a perfect record over her opponent, beating her in both previous meetings. However, she had to toil in Saturday's clash in just under two hours.

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The two players played a tit-for-tat match with closer ratio of serves, winners and unforced errors. But Mertens eventually took the upper hand with greater efficiency on the big points and fought back from 0-3 down in the second set tiebreak to win the match.