Wild-card Belinda Bencic yesterday claimed her second consecutive WTA 125k title at Taipei Arena, defeating Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands to claim the OEC Taipei Open crown.
The Swiss world No. 120, who due to injury missed about five months of the WTA Tour this season, won her 10th consecutive match by defeating Rus 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
Bencic, who reached a career-high seventh in the WTA rankings last season before her injury worries, failed to save the only break point she faced, but converted four of 11 to claim her second straight title after defeating Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei at the Hua Hin Championship in Thailand on Sunday last week.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
With Bencic leading 5-2, the first set looked to be heading for a quick conclusion, but the Dutch player fought back.
Bencic, frustrated at not having been able to convert three set points, was broken for the only time in the match at 5-3, before Rus held her serve the rest of the way to force a tiebreak.
However, unforced errors on Rus’ first two service games handed Bencic a 3-0 advantage and the Swiss duly wrapped up the tiebreaker 7/3.
Bencic then cruised through the second set, a costly Rus double fault bringing up match point, before the Dutch player hit a forehand into the net to hand Bencic the title.
“I want to congratulate my opponent first of all — I think she played a great week, even in doubles, and it was very tough to play [Rus] today,” Bencic said after accepting the trophy.
In the doubles final, Veronika Kudermetova of Russia defended the title she won in Taipei last year, albeit with a different partner.
Unseeded Kudermetova and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus fought back from a set down to edge third seeds Monique Adamczak of Australia and Naomi Broady of Britain 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-6 in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
TOOTHLESS: Bologna never looked like finding a way back, and Antonio Conte and his substitutes were waiting to celebrate long before the final whistle SSC Napoli on Monday lifted the Italian Supercoppa with a 2-0 win over Bologna in Riyadh, David Neres netting both goals to earn the league champions a deserved victory over the toothless Coppa Italia winners. Neres opened the scoring with a stunning strike from distance six minutes before halftime and found the net again in the 57th minute when Bologna were caught trying to play out of defense. “We came here as champions of Italy, we wanted this trophy and we showed it with a great performance,” Napoli forward Matteo Politano told Mediaset. “We could have scored a few more goals, but
Fulham on Monday climbed away from the English Premier League relegation zone and left Nottingham Forest mired in the fight for survival after Raul Jimenez’s penalty sealed a 1-0 win. Marco Silva’s side started the day just two points above fourth-bottom Forest, but Jimenez’s first-half goal at Craven Cottage moved them 10 points clear of the bottom three. While Fulham’s relegation fears were eased heading into the Christmas schedule, Forest are just five points ahead of third-bottom West Ham United in the scrap to avoid crashing into the Championship. Forest had won six of their previous eight games in all competitions, with a
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
English Premier League pair Mohamed Salah and Lyle Foster were match-winners on Monday as Egypt and South Africa began their Africa Cup of Nations Group B campaigns with victories in Morocco. Liverpool star Salah struck in the first minute of stoppage-time to snatch a 2-1 win for record seven-time champions Egypt over gallant Zimbabwe in Agadir. Earlier, second-half dominance by one-time title-holders South Africa paid off when Burnley striker Foster netted on 79 minutes to deliver a 2-1 victory over Angola in Marrakesh. The stage is now set for a top-of-the-table showdown between the Pharaohs and Bafana Bafana in Agadir on Friday. They
RSS