- Belinda Bencic (WTA 13) beats Sorana Cirstea (WTA 37) 3: 6, 7: 5, 6: 2 and advances to the next round at the US Open.
- In the meantime, the Swiss is about to be eliminated against the Romanian, but turns up with her back to the wall.
- In the 3rd round Bencic meets the Czech Karolina Pliskova (WTA 22).
All good things come in threes with Belinda Bencic too. In the third attempt, the Swiss won the duel with the Romanian Sorana Cirstea for the first time. The reward for the hard-fought three-set win is entry into the 3rd round of the US Open.
The ultimately clear deciding sentence on Court 11 belied a long, balanced game in which Bencic at times looked like the sure loser. Thanks to a mentally strong performance, the Swiss pulled her head out of the noose. “I can play very well under pressure and I have to believe in myself in such situations. But I hope that I can win an easier match again, »said the Swiss after the game.
Faulty serve in set 1
Bencic started the game to measure. The eastern Swiss convinced with a good return game and promptly made it 2-1 with a break. In the following game, she received the immediate rebreak despite a 40-0 lead.
Bencic obviously struggled with the precise and powerful play of her Romanian opponent, whose balls repeatedly scratched the baseline. “It was brutally long and forced me to make mistakes,” said Bencic. The reason for the loss of the 1st set was the faulty 1st serve, of which only 52 percent landed in the field. With a double fault, Bencic gave Cirstea the break to make it 5:3. A little later the loss of the set was a fact.
It’s running with your back to the wall
In the second round everything seemed to go against Bencic again. The Olympic champion left three breakballs unused when the score was 2:1, only to give up her service to zero shortly afterwards. From then on, the world number 13 ran after this break deficit.
Just as Cirstea served to win the match, Bencic unpacked her best tennis. With her back to the wall, the eastern Swiss got the long-awaited service breakthrough with her 9th chance. Thanks to 4 games won in a row, she then rewarded herself with the set equalization.
Bencic took the momentum into the deciding set and, after a good two and a half hours, used her 2nd match ball to win. In the 3rd round she meets the Czech Karolina Pliskova (WTA 22), who easily defeated her compatriot Maria Bouzkova (WTA 41) in two sets. The eastern Swiss player has only played against Pliskova once before, in 2019 she won in Indian Wells against the now 30-year-old.