SYDNEY (AP) — Belinda Bencic extended her season-opening unbeaten streak by beating Elise Mertens 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (0) on Saturday to give Switzerland a 1-0 lead in the United Cup semifinals against Belgium.
Tournament organizers started play 30 minutes earlier than scheduled with scorching temperatures of up to 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) in the forecast for Sydney.
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Stan Wawrinka, who withdraw At the end of that season, he faced Zizou Bergs in the men’s singles to try to advance Switzerland to Sunday’s final at Ken Rosewall Arena against the defending champions, the United States, or Poland.
Bencic had won all six sets in his first three matches at the United Cup. She was two games away from another straight-sets victory before Mertens pushed the match all the way.
Then, Mertens came back from 3-1 down in the third set, saved two break points that would have given Bencic a 4-1 lead, and was two points away from winning the set with Bencic serving at 30-30, trailing 6-5.
But Bencic won the final nine points of the match following the decision to change his racquet for a freshly strung one, winning the match in 2 hours and 37 minutes.
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“I feel like 170 kilos fell off my shoulders. I was so stressed; I really wanted to do well, and today I felt so much pressure not to let my team down,” Bencic said.
Of the racquet change, she said: “My brain shut off and I let my instincts take over. I think it was just a feeling.”
Later Saturday, in the other semi-final, No. 2 seed Iga Świątek of Poland faced No. 4 seed Coco Gauff of the United States and Hubert Hurkacz faced American Taylor Fritz. A mixed doubles match would be played if the teams were tied after the singles.
In the Poland-Australia quarter-final On Friday, it took a decisive mixed doubles match to decide between the teams.
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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
