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August 17, 2015

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Bencic pulls off Serena stunner

WORLD No. 1 Serena Williams was dumped out of the Rogers Cup, losing 6-3, 5-7, 4-6 to rising Swiss talent Belinda Bencic, who will meet Simona Halep in the final after the Romanian second seed beat Sara Errani in straight sets.

Saturday’s defeat was just the second in 45 matches this season for Williams, who has won the first three grand slams of the year and will be favorite for a fourth when the US Open kicks off at the end of the month.

The unseeded Bencic, 18, who also beat former No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic in Toronto, wore a look of disbelief after her forehand winner whizzed past Williams to seal the match.

Bencic dropped her racquet and covered her face with her hands before the tears started to flow. “I can’t believe it now,” Bencic said. “The first set was just too fast for me, I think. But then I adapted to the game in the second set, and then I was just fighting. I mean I had 5-1 (in the third set). I’m so happy. It’s amazing.”

Bencic will play for the title against Halep, who beat Italian Errani 6-4, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

“I’m not thinking about the title right now,” said Bencic. “I have to recover from today.”

Halep, playing her first event since a shock first-round exit at Wimbledon, was happy to escape with a straight-sets win in 1 hour, 35 minutes.

“I’m completely dead now, it was a very tough match,” said an exhausted Halep, who dropped to the court when Errani’s return sailed long. “She played amazing, she was running everywhere for all the balls. I did everything I could to finish in two sets because in the third one I don’t know what would happen.”

In Montreal, top-ranked Novak Djokovic advanced to the Rogers Cup final, beating France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday.

Djokovic will face second-seeded Andy Murray, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan.

“Andy is all-round player, very complete, and has been around for so many years,” Djokovic said. “He knows how to play in the big stage, in the big matches.”

Djokovic, the champion in 2007, 2011 and 2012, has won 52 of 55 matches this year. The Serb is in position to tie the ATP Tour record for consecutive Masters 1000 event titles at five. He stretched his record against Chardy to 10-0.

Djokovic is 19-8 against Murray, winning the last eight meetings with the Scot, including the Australian Open final this year.

With the win on Saturday, Murray will pass Roger Federer for the No. 2 spot in the world in the next rankings.




 

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