Bencic Opens Abu Dhabi With A Win, Kontaveit Injured; Rybakina v Pliskova
Second-seeded Belinda Bencic eliminated Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 7-5 in the second round today at Abu Dhabi.
Bencic tossed in three doubles, won 23/35 (66%) on first serve points, 16/20 (80%) on second serves. Bencic was broken twice but broke serve four times. In the match, Kostyuk cracked seven aces, hit four doubles but won just 11/27 (41%) on second serves.
“I was expecting it to be a tough match against Marta,” Bencic said. “I’m happy with how everything went, maybe some things I can improve.”
Bencic has now won both of tour-level head-to-head contests with Kostyuk.
Fourth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova ousted Elise Mertens in two sets 6-1, 7-5. Qinwen Zheng bounced 5th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko in two sets 7-6(12-10), 6-1. And Shelby Rogers got a retirement from No. 7 seed Anett Kontaveit at 4-6, 6-3, 4-1 due to a back issue. The Estonian will drop 500 points from her St. Petersburg title last year at this time.
Bencic will now face Rogers who also upset Leylah Fernandez. That match will be on Friday.
Looking at tomorrow, feature matches are Jil Teichmann – No. 1 Daria Kasatkina in second round play, No. 3 Elena Rybakina – Karolina Pliskova, Yulia Putintseva – No. 6 Beatriz Haddad Maia plus No. 8 Liudmila Samsonova – Barbora Krejcikova.
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