Belinda Bencic tried everything to get into a comfortable form but fell flat at the Pan Pacific Open Tuesday. The 2015 finalist showed struggle against Caroline Wozniacki to lose a three set fight 2-6, 7-5, 1-6 on centre court at the Ariake Tennis Forest.
The US Open semifinalist had been off for two weeks since losing out on a title to Angelique Kerber in the final. With the strong signs of a comeback occurring during the two week tournament, the Dane gave herself plenty of confidence going beginning in Tokyo. Bencic has the 4-1 edge on Wozniacki to date, but with her game taking a dive over the past couple of months, concerns of playing the former number one are more than active to start the WTA premier event.
The Swiss teen didn’t have her game up to speed in the opening set as she watched the former number one take control after four. The Dane continued to show the tennis world her strength despite being 29th instead of one of the top ten. It led to a 6-2 rout that had some believing it might be another solid night for Wozniacki and another struggle for Bencic.
The 19-year-old turned it around in the second, giving it everything she had to match the power of her opponent. The games elapsed slowly in the second set with Bencic putting in a lot of effort not to slip out of the pace. She got Wozniacki into a 5-5 tie setting up a critical ending to how the remainder of the set would play out. For Bencic, it was a difficult trek but she managed to gain hold climbing to a 7-5 win forcing a third set into action.
The energy Bencic put into the second was barely noticeable in the third as she was rocked by the fierce game of Wozniacki. The Dane built up a strong offense that left her the one to dictate the remainder of the match. She allowed Bencic to score five points on serve while maintaining quite a grip in the set. Despite her struggles on the second serve, Wozniacki coasted to victory over the Swiss star to prevent a fight to the end and walk out off centre court victorious. The match took 1 hour and 45 minutes to finish in what could have been a lengthy battle on court.
With Bencic out of the way, Wozniacki could keep her focus straight and true before taking on Spanish star Carla Suarez Navarro in what would be her first match in the tournament on Wednesday.
Photo by: Koji Wantanabe/Getty Images
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