WTA Dubai: Belinda Bencic overpowers Petra Kvitova to win the title
The 21-year-old Belinda Bencic has completed a stellar week in Dubai, defeating the 2nd seed and a former champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 to lift her third WTA title, the first since Toronto 2015. In Canada, an 18-year-old Swiss toppled three top-10 rivals in a row and she was even better in Dubai, saving six match points against Aryna Sabalenka, coming from a set down against Simona Halep and trailing 5-3 in the decider versus Elina Svitolina! Today, she was the dominant figure on the court in sets one and three, scoring her first win over the Czech and achieving the first significant results after years of stagnation caused by injuries that propelled her out from the top-300 in 2017!
Petra had some tough matches in the last seven days but she would always do enough to cross the finish line, reaching the third final of the season where she couldn't deal with deep and powerful strokes of her younger opponent, losing serve five times. Belinda gave serve away on four occasions although she firmly believed in her triumph, staying focused after a poor second set to overpower Kvitova and lift the trophy. The Swiss made the best possible start, breaking at love in the first game with a great return that Kvitova failed to control, opening a 4-1 lead after just 24 minutes and wrapping up the set with a backhand drive-volley winner in game nine.
Petra stormed over Belinda in set number two, breaking her three times to win the set 6-1 after a return winner in game seven, standing as the favorite in the decider with a massive boost on her side. Instead of that, Bencic managed to rest her game and thoughts and start all over, breaking in the third game after a double fault from the Czech and extending the lead to 5-2 when Petra sprayed a forehand error, unable to find an open space and move Belinda from the comfort zone. Serving for the title, the Swiss fended off two break points in game eight, forcing an error from Kvitova to celebrate the most noticeable result in more than three and a half years, entering the top-25 again and continue her comeback to where she certainly belongs.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2SiEc1K
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