Keystone
Belinda Bencic gets away with a black eye in her starting game at the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai. The 25-year-old from Eastern Switzerland beat the Ukrainian Marta Kostjuk 6: 7 (7: 9), 7: 6 (7: 5), 6: 4.
The game lasted three hours and 27 minutes – 42 minutes longer than last week’s round of 16 against Viktoria Asarenka in Doha (1: 6, 7: 6, 6: 4). In Doha Bencic got out of the tournament on the same day due to fatigue and did not play in the quarterfinals against Iga Swiatek.
Also in Dubai Bencic has little time until the next appearance. In the round of 16 on Wednesday she meets outsider Karolina Muchova (WTA 112). In the event of victory, the next opponents could be Jessica Pegula (WTA 3) on Thursday, Aryna Sabalenka (WTA 2) on Friday and Iga Swiatek (WTA 1) on Saturday.
However, if Bencic wants to go far in Dubai, where she won the tournament four years ago, she needs to improve. Bencic was convincing against Marta Kostjuk, but she remained playful despite all her performances this year. For a long time, the number 55 in the world was threatened with the first defeat of the season against an outsider. After an hour and a half, Bencic was 6-7, 1-3 behind Kostjuk.
sda
