Belinda Bencic and Lauren Davis clinched titles during the last weekend ahead of the 2023 Australian Open.
The world No.13 Bencic raced to her seventh career title and first on Australian soil with an emphatic 6-0 6-2 victory over Daria Kasatkina in the final of the WTA 500 Adelaide International 2 tournament.
Making her third appearance at Adelaide, where she reached the final in 2021 and quarterfinal in 2020, Bencic defeated Garbine Muguruza, Anna Kalinskaya and Caroline Garcia, while she advanced to the title match via Veronika Kudermetova’s walkover.
The triumph will take Bencic back into the Top 10, where she was last time in the week of September 28, 2020.
Bencic is the No.12 seed at the Australian Open and will open play against Viktoriya
Tomova in the first round.
World No.84 Lauren Davis went from qualifying rounds to the Hobart International title without dropping a set. In the main draw, the American defeated former US Open champion Sloane Stephens, Ysaline Bonaventure, Wang Xinyu, Anna Blinkova and lastly Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-6(0) 6-2 in an all-unseeded final to end a six-year title drought. Davis’ only previous title came in New Zealand, at Auckland 2017, also on hard courts.
“I have a lot of emotions going through my body right now,” said the former Top 30 player Davis after becoming the Hobart champion. “I’m just really happy, really excited. I really had to play my best in order to win today.”
In the first round of the Australian Open, Davis is scheduled to face Danka Kovinic of Montenegro.
