Ninth-ranked Belinda Bencic will feature in her third round match at the Doha Open 2020 when she takes on Yulia Putintseva on Wednesday, February 26. The match will be played at 2.30 pm local time (12.30 pm BST), and you can find the Petra Kvitova v Jelena Ostapenko live streaming options along with its preview, head to head and tips here.
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Belinda Bencic v Yulia Putintseva Head to Head
Bencic will have to be careful in this one as she goes into the match with a 1-3 head to head in favour of Yulia Putintseva. Their last meeting came at the Miami Open last year where Putintseva registered a straight-set win over an in-form Bencic. Bencic’s only victory against Putintseva had come in last year’s Australian Open.
Not the Greatest of Starts for Bencic
After a first round bye, Bencic had to fight back from the dead to win her second round match against Veronika Kudermetova. Kudermetova pushed her to a final set tie-breaker which Bencic finally won to scrape past her opponent, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.
It was her opponent’s serve that Bencic found it difficult to get past, with the Russias serving 13 aces, including seven in the final set when the going was tough. Bencic also suffered an early break of serve in the second set, and while she rallied to level the terms, she was broken yet again to lose the set.
In the final set, Bencic looked to be in early trouble as she was broken first in the final set but the fighting spirit continued as she went 5-4 up and had a match-point on her opponent’s serve. Bencic, in turn, endured four break-points at 5-5 in the final set but ensured the set was taken to a tie-breaker which she then won relatively easily.
Earlier, Bencic had also been dumped out of the Dubai Tennis Championships in the first round and suffered an early loss at the St. Petersburg Open as well.
Putintseva Shocks Mertens in Second Round
Putintseva was down a set in her second round match before winning the next two sets to dump the defending champion Elise Mertens out in a shock second round win. Aided by a solid first serve percentage (73.9%), she won 45 of her 65 points on the first serve even as her opponent struggled to do the same.
However, Putintseva’s greatest strength in the match came under pressure when she faced 10 break-points in the match and managed to save eight of them. In turn she got the same opportunity just five times and broke Mertens on four of the occasions. Efficiency was the name of the game for her.
This win followed a 6-3, 6-4 victory she had over Timea Babos in her first round encounter on day one of the competition. Like Bencic, Putintseva’s not had the best times in the lead-up to this tournament with a first round loss at the St. Petersburg Open and a defeat to Mertens in the Fed Cup too.
Belinda Bencic v Yulia Putintseva Predictions & Tips
This seems to be a more even battle than the rankings of nine and 32nd in the world suggest with Bencic going in just marginally ahead at 8/11. She should still show enough fighting prowess to edge her opponent out but could be a three-setter.
Tip: Three sets in the match: 8/5 (Click here to get these odds with Unibet)
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