Top seed Belinda Bencic battled from a set down to claim a semi-final spot at the St Petersburg Open on Friday, beating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7 (7/4), 6-4, 6-2.
The 18-year-old Swiss, ranked 11th in the world, won in 2 hours, 32 minutes to record her second win over Pavlyuchenkova in three meetings.
“Today, probably all the match was pretty horrible,” Bencic said.
Photo: AP
“I made a lot of mistakes, but I think it is important to fight even through the bad days. It is easy to win when you play perfectly good, but it is a much bigger achievement if you win when you are struggling,” she added.
After dropping the first set to the world No. 26, Bencic, who seeks her third career title and a first appearance in the world top 10, broke twice for a commanding 5-1 advantage in the second set.
In the decider, Bencic was in complete command, breaking her rival’s serve twice to take the match. In yesterday’s semi-finals, Bencic was to face Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina, who also battled back from a set down to beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 and reach her second semi-final.
“It is the first time in my career that I rallied from behind to win such a prolonged match,” Kasatkina said. “This success really matters for me as I have played just a few WTA matches so far.”
Second seed Roberta Vinci of Italy overcame stiff opposition from Timea Babos on her way to the last four with a 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) win.
Last year’s US Open runner-up Vinci experienced problems with her first serve from the start allowing the 22-year-old Babos to break for a comfortable 5-2 lead.
However, world No. 16 Vinci rallied to level the set at 5-5 before claiming the opening set in a tiebreak.
In the second, Babos, ranked 51st, broke early to level the match at 1-1 after 1 hour, 40 minutes on court.
The Hungarian started the deciding set with an immediate break and was serving for the match, but the Italian veteran broke back to level at 5-5.
In a tiebreak that followed, Vinci was more focused again, winning the match and a place in the semis in 2 hours, 33 minutes.
“It is always tough to face Timea,” Vinci said. “I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but, luckily, I managed to take the opening set. It was very hard in the third set when she served for the match, but I stayed focused and won a great match.”
Vinci is to next face former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, who beat Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Kozlova 6-1, 7-5.
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