WTA Adelaide: Belinda Bencic fights Gauff into the final
Belinda Bencic fought her way into the final of the Adelaide WTA tournament thanks to a mental masterpiece. She beat Cori Gauff 7: 6 (2), 6: 7 (4) and 6: 2.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Feb 26, 2021, 12:10 pm
Bencic had already led 5: 3 in the second round, but could not use a match point on his own serve. She also lost a close game afterwards, Gauff managed to equalize the set. In the third set, however, Bencic managed a break to zero right at the beginning and pulled away.
"I'm so relieved," said the world number twelfth afterwards. "In the meantime I didn't know what to do anymore." The match point awarded? "This is tennis, it happens to everyone."
Again no Swiss final
Bencic has the chance of her fifth WTA title, the third after her long injury period , during which she was knocked out of the top 100. In retrospect, however, she no longer grudges the time-out. "Before the injury I took everything for granted, now I'm more grateful," she said.
In the Adelaide final, Bencic meets French Open winner Iga Swiatek, who had previously won against Jil Teichmann 6: 3, 6: 2. Swiatek prevented the first purely Swiss final at WTA level at all.