Related News
Safarova packs off Bencic at Pan Pacs
Print Edition
SEVENTH-SEEDED Lucie Safarova battled back to beat wildcard Belinda Bencic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 yesterday and reach the Pan Pacific Open quarterfinals in Tokyo, spoiling the Swiss teenager’s upward momentum this year.
The 27-year-old Czech lost three straight games after 3-3 in the first set but in the second she broke Bencic’s serve in the third game and sprinkled five aces.
In the decisive set, the left-hander broke the 17-year-old Swiss in the first and fifth games before conceding no point in the eighth game, finishing her off with two straight aces, her ninth and 10th of the match.
“It was a very tough match. I’m really happy I could win,” said Safarova, ranked 15th in the world, after beating Bencic in their first-ever encounter in two hours and three minutes.
Bencic, fresh from her run to the quarterfinals at the US Open two weeks ago which boosted her world ranking, said: “I can just take the positive out of this match and I didn’t think it was too bad.”
Ranked 34th this week, Bencic upset Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open champion, 6-3, 6-0 in the first round.
Safarova, who reached the semifinals at this year’s Wimbledon, faces third-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the round of eight.
Ivanovic, 10th in the world, beat another former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open champion, 6-3, 6-4. Azarenka is currently ranked 25th.
In another early second-round match, sixth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia outlasted American Coco Vandeweghe 7-6 (5), 7-5 in two hours and five minutes.
In the quarterfinals, the 25-year-old world No. 13 will meet top-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany.
The world No. 8 brushed aside Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 in the late match.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
