Belinda Bencic has sent the women’s singles defending champion packing from the 2019 US Open. Bencic, who was playing her first seeded opponent, was a straight-set winner over Naomi Osaka to make the quarter-finals.
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Bencic needed an hour and 26 minutes to get past the defending champion in straight sets, winning 7-5, 6-4 to set up a meeting with Donna Vekic in the last-eight. Vekic saved a match-point before getting past Julia Goerges in three sets in another fourth round match.
The Swiss 13th seeded had come into the match having beaten Osaka twice already this year, having also stalled the Japanese world number one’s title defence at the Indian Well Open earlier this year.
What the win allows is Bencic her first grab at the quarter-final spot since the 2014 US Open, while Osaka, who had plenty of points to defend thanks to her win last year, will now go down to the second spot in the WTA Rankings. Her place will be taken by Ash Barty, who has also been sent out of the competition.
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Bencic broke Osaka early and was on the verge of making it two breaks in a row when the Japanese player struck back to first hold her serve and then break the Swiss back. Things went on serve after that till Osaka faced a break-point again in the 11th game of the opening set and Bencic promptly converted. Not too long after, she served out to close the set.
The Japanese did not get too many chances for a comeback in the second set. In fact, at 2-2, Bencic upped the ante to show her opponent the power of her forehand and then saw Osaka serve out a double-fault to give the Swiss player a very important break.
There was no coming back as both players held on to their respective serves after that, with Bencic serving it out in the 10th game. Osaka looked so outplayed, she won just four points on Bencic’s serve in the second set, with the 13th seed sealing her chances to make her first Grand Slam semi-final.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Back in the QF! ?<a href=”https://twitter.com/BelindaBencic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@BelindaBencic</a> defeats World No. 1 Osaka 7-5, 6-4 to reach the QF stage in Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2014…<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#USOpen</a> <a href=”https://t.co/U77E34blRi”>pic.twitter.com/U77E34blRi</a></p>— US Open Tennis (@usopen) <a href=”https://twitter.com/usopen/status/1168580577034768384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>September 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
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