Legend:
clench fist
Belinda Bencic.
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- Belinda Bencic successfully started the Australian Open in Melbourne.
- The Eastern Swiss won their opening game against Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic 6: 4, 6: 3.
- Jil Teichmann will start her first round game against Petra Martic on Monday at around 06:00 Swiss time.
Belinda Bencic made the best possible entry into the 1st Grand Slam tournament of the year. The number 22 seeded Olympic champion defeated French Kristina Mladenovic (WTA 91) 6:4, 6:3 in the first round.
The eastern Swiss showed a varied game against Mladenovic, who she counts among her friends but not her favorite opponents on the tour. But not everything went according to plan at Bencic, she will still have to work on some construction sites with a view to the next rounds. Their 17 winners face just as many unforced errors.
Net scooter with consequences
The sticking point of the game came in the first set when the score was 4:4, 15:30 from the point of view of Bencic, who was serving. Mladenovic was dominant at this point and often used her forehand to push in rallies. Bencic, with his back to the wall and two breakballs in front of him, played a forehand via the edge of the net into the opposing field and scored extremely lucky.
After the Swiss player won the game a little later, her French opponent seemed a bit upset: Bencic took advantage of the ice-cold, got the break to zero and with it the 1st set.
Now Anisimova is waiting
In the second round, the 24-year-old took a 2-0 lead early on. She immediately responded to a rebreak with a service breakthrough on her part. Not much came from Mladenovic, especially towards the end of the 2nd set – after 89 minutes Bencic converted her 1st match point to victory.
In the 2nd round on Wednesday she meets the young American Amanda Anisimova (WTA 61), who prevailed against the Dutch qualifier Arianne Hartono (WTA 191) in 3 sets. Bencic had won the only duel with Anisimova so far in 2019 at the lawn tournament in Mallorca.