Belinda Bencic reaches for the stars in Tokyo. The 24-year-old Flawilerin wins the first of her two Olympic finals in a single against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova in two sets and is a sensational Olympic champion!
After almost two and a half hours, Belinda Bencic falls on her knees on Center Court in Tokyo, then on her back. At the second match point, Vondrousova’s return sailed out of bounds, the Swiss had suffered her greatest success. Like almost every victory in the last few days.
The 2019 French Open finalist, although only ranked 42nd in the WTA rankings, gave Bencic a great fight. But the Swiss woman was up to the pressure and, like so often in the last few days, won the important points. In the first set she was 2: 3 behind with a break, but prevailed 7: 5. The second was clearly dominated by the two years younger Czech, who had eliminated the co-favorites Naomi Osaka and Jelina Switolina, among others.
And also in the decisive set she went straight to the front with a break. But Bencic demonstrated what is perhaps her greatest quality: she never gave up and was rewarded for it. She won three games in a row, but had to let Vondrousova come back to 3: 3. She fended off a break ball to 3: 4, then two more when she served to the match. Until the last and decisive serve brought the triumph.
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Keystone
It is the third Swiss gold medal in tennis after Marc Rosset in Barcelona in 1992 and the Roger Federer / Stan Wawrinka doubles in Beijing in 2008. Since then, there has been at least one medal for the Swiss tennis delegation at all games. On Sunday at 8 a.m. Swiss time, Bencic has the chance to win a second gold medal alongside Viktorija Golubic in doubles.
