Indomitable Bencic wins Abu Dhabi Open – News

Bencic welcomes new WTA 500 victory at Abu Dhabi International Tennis Center

Swiss player Belinda Bencic poses with the trophy. – Photos provided

World No. 9 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland beat World No. 19 Lyudmila Samsonova 1-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the singles final to save Scored three championship points and became the first champion of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open.

In the final match of the eight-day tournament, Bencic emerged at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Center to win Sunday’s new WTA 500 event in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council and Mubadala.

Samsonova got off to a quick start in front of the stadium crowd, converting an early break point into a 3-0 lead. She continued to dominate, losing just one game to seal the first set 6-1.

The opposite was the case in the second set, with second seed Bencic finding his rhythm and leading 5-3, the Swiss saving three championship points to win the second set despite Samsonova’s rebound.

Bencic then picked up where she left off, converting an early break point before saving serve for the winner.

It was her first win since losing to Samsonova in her first three fights and her second title of the year after winning in Adelaide.

“I’m very happy with myself for staying strong and I’m very happy to finally beat Samsonova and win the title, especially because it was a tough final,” Bencic said.

“The third championship point I saved was a long rally where I fought every shot and earned another point. Sometimes it’s easy to lose focus and walk away mentally, but I feel really good and my The team has been pushing me.”

Brazil’s Luisa Stefani and China’s Zhang Shuai won the doubles title from a two-set deficit after beating Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Chinese Taipei’s Chen Haoqing 3-6, 6-2, 10-8.

Shuko Aoyama and Hao-Ching Chan got off to a perfect start in the match, winning the first four frames.

Stefani and Zhang managed to close the gap, but it was Aoyama and Chan who had the upper hand to seal the first set.

Stephanie and Zhang fought back in the second set to tie the score and go into the tiebreaker, which turned out to be a close fight with the pair leading 10-8.

“It was a great game and I am very happy to win the title with Zhang Shuai, I enjoyed playing with him this week. I would like to thank Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Sports Council for a fantastic game Competition, thank you to the whole team for participating, hopefully I will be back again next year,” said Stephanie.