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Switzerland’s No. 2 seed Belinda Bencic comfortably beat 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 Adelaide International 2 last month Won the seventh career WTA singles title.
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 victory. 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 took a total of 7 hours and 43 minutes to win three sets, while Bencic only played in 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.
In the final, Bencic will face No. 8 seed Samsonova, who defeated Zheng Qinwen 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in 2 hours and 19 minutes.
World No. 19 Samsonova won three titles last season, including defeating Zheng Zhi in the Tokyo final. Samsonova repeated the feat in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, leading 2-1 in their head-to-head encounter.
read more: Zheng Qinwen on the cover of GQ China
“It was a great game, Qin Wen played unbelievably,” Samsonova said after the game. “In the end, I think I’m more solid and I think that’s the key – and of course the serve, which I serve really well.”
Both strong players served aces, with Samsonova hitting 10 and Zheng Zhi 15. In the third set, Samsonova saved three break points in the set while converting her only break point — on match point — in the decider.
In the third game 4-4, Samsonova kept her serve and quickly put pressure on Zheng Zheng’s serve. In the next game, Zheng Zhi’s forehand gave Samsonova double match point, and Samsonova converted her first chance with a long error and a solid return.
“After the second set, I did try to be more aggressive,” Samsonova said. “I was trying to push myself to do better, to be more aggressive. Of course, I was very, very focused on my serve.”
Samsonova leads Bencic 3-0 in Sunday’s final. In fact, Samsonova won her first title at Berlin Meadows 2021, beating Bencic in the final. Samsonova is also unbeaten 4-0 in the WTA singles final of her career.
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