Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship 2019: Bencic pulls off amazing upset against Sabalenka
Belinda Bencic went the distance in a match that had numerous twists and turns at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championship. Having saved six match points in the decider, the 21-year-old stayed in it to win in a tiebreak, upsetting Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(7) on Centre Court late into Wednesday at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Stadium.
The two met for the first time last season with the Belarussian allowing Bencic just five games before taking the match in straight sets. That was the precursor to her winning the title in New Haven for the second time in her career.
The 20-year-old was eyeing another victory against the Swiss star yesterday. But Bencic had yet to drop a set before the match with two wins under her belt at Dubai, and it promised to be an intriguing encounter.
After Sabalenka held to begin the match, she gave Bencic a heck of a time holding serve. The Belarussian forced deuce and made it difficult for the Swiss star to gain a footing. After saving a break point, Bencic managed to win it on the second AD point.
Bencic then went after Sabalenka and produced two chances to break, which she sealed with a fine point. A consolidation of the break came in the shape of a hold to take a 3-1 lead. She then got a double break to gain a big 4-1 lead.
Bencic had Sabalenka in the right place at 5-1, but a gritty hold by the Belarussian in the seventh game extended the set. Sabalenka then managed to find a way to dig in and be aggressive on the return during the eighth, and got one of the breaks back.
Bencic got stuck into her serve in the 10th game with some help from Sabalenka, to set up set points. She sealed it through a long return from Sabalenka, wrapping up the set in 43 minutes.
Both finished with good first serve stats, but the second serve was troublesome for both. The tight finish to the set gave Sabalenka hope to turn it around in the next set.
That was exactly what she did to begin the second set, giving Bencic just one point on serve before breaking her in the second game. With the consolidation and a 3-0 run in hand, Bencic called for a coaching call, expressing her frustrations during the break.
She registered her first game of the set in the fourth, holding off the Belarussian momentarily. But the 20-year-old held in the fifth to get into a great position to force a decider.
Although Bencic gained another hold, Sabalenka showed serious determination to hold serve in the eighth and take the set in 35 minutes, with her game in the right gear. The second serve of the 21-year-old was disastrous, with her numerous double faults causing her plenty of trouble.
With her game falling apart since the end of the opening set, the Swiss star had a huge challenge to find a way back into the match.
A hold helped her get into the third set but she still faced a surging opponent who had her offense well under control. Sabalenka got the hold in the third game before breaking Bencic to lead 3-1.
The fifth game went deep and saw Sabalenka repeatedly force deuce on serve but endure problems winning the AD point. Bencic had many chances and after the fourth break point, the 21-year-old got herself within a game of Sabalenka.
Showing strong determination against the World No. 9, the Swiss star was in no mood to give up the match easily. But remaining consistent was a big problem for her as the Belarussian was in good shape on serve and going for big shots on the returns.
Facing a break point in the eighth game, Bencic let go of the reins when the ball hit the net and fell wide.
Sabalenka served for the match at 5-3, and Bencic was running out of options fast. The Swiss star got aggressive on her returns but Sabalenka delivered a crosscourt winner for match point.
Bencic saved it as a net chord allowed her to fire the line drive away from Sabalenka. With the match point killed off, Bencic had the AD point before taking the break on a double fault from the 20-year-old.
With a game to go in order to extend the decider, Bencic went out to a 40-0 lead before losing it completely. She struggled to put Sabalenka away on serve and even received a warning for a time violation.
When deuce came into play, Bencic let out her frustrations and soon found herself facing match point. She saved two in that pivotal 10th game before getting her own chance to hold off Sabalenka and leave a shot open to still win it.
The eighth seed made sure to gain a footing on the scoreboard in the next game as she held comfortably in the 11th to put the pressure back on Bencic. But the Swiss refused to yield in the 12th game, saving a fourth match point before gaining an AD point chance.
Two back-to-back forehand winners helped her get to a critical tiebreak to determine the winner of the match.
An unforced error into the net gave Bencic the 1-0 lead, and she let out a long scream. But the Belarussian tied things up before getting a free point on Bencic’s 12th double fault of the match.
A crosscourt winner nudged her ahead before a return from Bencic landed long to make it 4-1. With a small winning streak in hand, Sabalenka would have hoped to keep the momentum going but some great court positioning gave Bencic a much-needed point.
The Swiss got to 3-4 as the errors from Sabalenka started piling up. She stopped them with a point on serve, taking her two points away from victory, but then a wide backhand kept Bencic within reach.
The Swiss star was soon back on level terms at 5-5, before a double fault killed her chance for the lead and handed a fifth match point to Sabalenka. But the Belarussian committed an eighth double fault that once again leveled the score.
A winner gave Sabalenka her sixth match point, but that was still not enough as her subsequent shot fell long. “I played the match points with my back to the wall so I had nothing to lose anymore. I was out so I just played and cannot believe it turned around,” Bencic said later about saving so many match points.
The error from Sabalenka gave Bencic some life, who soon got a match point of her own at 8-7. She made her only match point of the night count, watching a return from the 20-year-old sail long to end a 2 hour and 27-minute ordeal.
Sabalenka had 40 errors and 44 winners for the night, which ultimately led to her downfall late in the match.
“I’m not sure why I won,” Bencic said to Annabel Croft after the match. “I would have been in the locker room five times taking a shower and now I won the match. I think I played great with Aryna and she’s a great player and we both deserved to win and maybe I was a little bit lucky in the end.”
Bencic moves on into Thursday’s match against Simona Halep. “She’s a champion,” said Bencic “She’s putting a lot of balls back so I have nothing to lose anymore. I can only win so I’m really happy about this tournament already so everything else is a bonus.”