Bencic, Samsonova To Meet For WTA Abu Dhabi Title

Second seed Belinda Bencic will seek her second title of the season Sunday against Liudmila Samsonova in the Abu Dhabi WTA 500 final.

The second-seeded Bencic topped No. 6 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2, 6-3. In the match, Bencic was solid on serve tallying four aces, winning 20/27 (74%) of first service points, 13/17 (76%) on second serves, and never dropping serve and only facing one break point. The Swiss broke four times with the last to win the match.

Beatriz Haddad Maia falls to 5-7 against Top 10 players. Bencic has now won two of three tour-level clashes when facing Haddad Maia.

Bencic reaches her 17th career final. She will seek her 8th career title against the 8th-seeded Samsonova.

Samsonova got through Chinese star Qinwen Zheng of China 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in a power players delight. Samsonova hit 10 aces, won 37/46 (80%) on first serve points. She broke Zheng to win the match.

The 29th-ranked Zheng connected on 15 aces. Samsonova now is ahead of Zheng 2-1 in their tour-level battles.

“It was an amazing match, Qinwen played unbelievable,” Samsonova said. “At the end, I think I was more solid, and this was the key, I think — and of course the serve, I was serving very well.”

Samsonova reaches her 5th career final. Zheng was bidding her 2nd career WTA final.

Samsonova has won all three tour-level collisions against Bencic, and she’s a perfect 4-0 in WTA finals including a 2021 win in the Berlin final, her first career title.

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