Belinda Bencic showed her qualities as a comebacker at the WTA tournament in Abu Dhabi and won the final against Ludmilla Samsonova in three sets.
Winning thriller in the Abu Dhabi final: Belinda Bencic.
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It is the second title this year for the Swiss, she celebrated her first at the start in Adelaide, Australia, when she outclassed the Russian Darya Kasatkina 6-0 and 6-2.
The matter in Abu Dhabi this Sunday was much more difficult for Bencic, who lost the first set 1: 6 – and had to fend off three match points in the second round. With the score of 6:4, 6:5, and 8:7 in the exciting tie-break, she was challenged to score – and kept her nerve. In the end, the ninth in the world rankings won the tie-break 10:8 and thus pulled her head out of the noose for the time being.
Apparently, the missed chances of winning had unsettled Samsonova a bit in the third set, but in the end this one also ended up being a tight box. After 2:48 hours, Bencic converted his own match point to 6: 4 and also celebrated a premiere: In the fourth duel with the world number 19. she left the field as a winner for the first time. Samsonova’s sweetest win against Bencic was the final victory in Berlin 2021.
In Abu Dhabi, the 25-year-old Bencic managed to take revenge in a final and thus also won her twelfth individual victory this year – one more than the previous Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka.
Overall, it was the eighth tournament success of her career.
