Belinda Bencic (WTA 9), who came out last week in Dubai, did not suffer the same fate in Doha, even though she sweated blood and water. This success, born in pain in front of a player who obtained this Monday the best classification of her career, is not anecdotal. Belinda Bencic had been beaten in three of the four previous duels against the 22-year-old Russian semi-finalist in Hobart at the start of the year.
It also took nothing for the Swiss to bow again since it was she who conceded the first break in the third heat. Having missed a match point on opposing service at 5-4, she tightened her game at the best of times, winning the last three points of the tie-break and the match after 2 h 38 min of combat.
The St Galloise, who lost the 900 points that rewarded her coronation of Dubai in 2019 on Monday – and therefore dropped from 4th to 9th in the world -, simply obtains her second victory of the year against a player among the top 40 of the WTA ranking.
Belinda Bencic will rub in the round of 16 Elise Mertens (WTA 23), who fell 4-6 6-3 6-2 from Yulia Putintseva. She has never faced the Belgian, 8th in the final of the last Australian Open, before.
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