Yes, she did it! Belinda Bencic went all the way in Toronto, adding a victory over Simona Halep in wild Sunday’s final to the long list of brightest WTA stars eliminated en route to the title match — Eugenie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki, Ana Ivanovic, Serena Williams. True, the final ended disappointingly, with Halep’s retirement, but the moment the Romanian finally gave up came after a grueling fight that lasted two and a half hours.
The world No.20 Bencic won the first set in a tiebreak and served for the second set at 5-3, but despite feeling like a wounded warrior, Halep kept pushing through long rallies and forced the deciding set in the second-set tiebreak. With absolutely no more fuel left in her tank, Halep retired in the third set, while being two breaks down at 0-3. Final score: 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 3-0.
This has been an incredible week for the 18-year-old Bencic, as not only has she won a WTA Premier 5 tournament, ensuring $456,000 in prize money and a rise to No.12 in the rankings, but she’s done it in huge style, by taking out four out of Top 6 players, including the unbeatable No.1 Serena Williams, and on top of that all her victims boast Grand Slam finals in their bios.
I was so disappointed by how this match ended. It looked like we were in for a real battle when Simon withdrew. Hope she recovers very soon.
Sabey, agree, but also nothing can take away from Bencic’s stellar week and outstanding achievement.
I am pretty sure she’ll be a World No. 1 player in the future. She’ll definitely be a contender as the future queen of WTA.