Defending champion Belinda Bencic loses the new edition of the final at the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston against Ons Jabeur 6: 7 (6: 8) and 4: 6. The Tunisian is taking revenge against the eastern Swiss for the 1:6, 7:5 and 4:6 defeat in last year’s final.
Bencic got off to an excellent start just three-quarters of an hour after beating top seeded Jessica Pegula in the semifinals. The Swiss leads 5: 3 on the green clay court, but then loses three games in a row. At 5: 6 she fends off three set balls and then gets two set balls in the tie-break.
Still, in the end it’s Ons Jabeur who wins the opening set after over an hour. The luck with a whole series of line balls at important points changed back and forth in this phase.
With improved weather conditions, Belinda Bencic experiences a cold start in the second set: Jabeur, world number 4 and finalist at Wimbledon and the US Open 2022, quickly pulls away to 4: 1. The 26-year-old from Eastern Switzerland can only catch up on one of the two breaks. Jabeur celebrates her fourth WTA title after a good two hours.
With a little distance, Bencic will look with satisfaction at the week on the south east coast of the US, despite the final defeat that is not mandatory. After several weak tournaments she found her way back to success and won four games. Dimitri Turzunov, from whom she separated again last week, was no longer there.
