Switzerland’s No. 2 seed Belinda Bencic comfortably defeated Brazil’s No. 6 seed Beatrice Haddad Maya 6-2, 6-3 to advance to Mubadala Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The Open final, her 11th match victory this year.
Bencic needed an hour and a half to secure the semi-final win and secure a spot in the second final of the season. Bencic won his seventh career WTA singles title at the Adelaide International 2 last month.
World No. 9 Bencic now equals Australian Open champion Sabalenka for the most tour-level wins so far in 2023. Bencic tied for second on Saturday with Caroline Garcia and Julene, who each have 10 wins this season.
Bencic ended Haddad Maia’s winning streak against top-10 players with a semifinal win. Haddad Maya has won her last six matches against top-10 opponents, including her quarter-final victory over Australian Open finalist Elena Lebakina on Friday.
There was a huge variance in the amount of time each player spent playing this week. Haddad Maia won all three sets in a total of 7 hours and 43 minutes, while Bencic played in just 3 hours and 20 minutes in the previous rounds.
Bencic made more bunts on Saturday, winning nearly three-quarters of her first serve points and eliminating the only break point she faced all day.
The second semi-final between Zheng Qinwen and Lyudmila Samsonova will determine Bencic’s final opponent on Sunday. Bencic has never played Zheng, she is 0-3 against Samsonova.
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