A few times I noticed Bencic not even moving from the corner because she knew – and she was right – that the ball would be coming right back to her. That’s pretty heady stuff for just 18. The 18-year-old opened with a victory over Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and followed with wins over fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki and fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic. The Halep vs Bencic match gets underway at 10.30 pm. “She was No. 1 in doubles for a really long time, so she obviously has a great game”. But credit must be given to the Swiss. They didn’t, as Bencic earned another big win to be the one serving for the match in Game Eight.
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“That’s a good question because tennis takes a lot of years of skill and of, you know, practice”, she said.
Three-time Rogers Cup champion Serena Williams has advanced into the quarterfinals Thursday night, beating 16th-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-3, 6-2. Nerves, nerves, nerves. Now at deuce Bencic faults again, and it’s Serena who pounces on the second serve and wins the point by pressuring Bencic into an error. The worn out Romanian was struggling to cope with Radwanska’s attacking tennis as she was hugging the baseline in the opening service games. And it seemed that this trait would be maintained by Bencic. Williams broke back to reduce the deficit to 4-1, but Bencic threw up a swift riposte to move within one game of the showpiece. A backhand down the line from her just missed for her to get on the board as you could tell her usual precision was off because of the tired body from that match with Kerber.
Bencic joins Petra Kvitova as the only two players now to defeat Williams this year.
Like Halep, the youngster will surely be exhausted after taking out five stars of the WTA. On the other hand, their serves are solid, but nothing to write home about, and their forehands can break down. Nat Borchers scored in the 95th minute to give the Portland Timbers a 1-0 victory over Real Salt Lake….
Halep and Bencic have only met once before, with Halep claiming the victory at Wimbledon a year ago. Bencic, who also has Slovak citizenship through her parents, was just two years old in 1999 when Williams won her first major title.
A key factor will be how each player holds up after their tough draws.
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Now she has one more to go. He’s won 11 straight matches and will be the heavy favorite in the final against Murray.
