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Belinda Bencic played another long day of tennis but earned the win on a great finish at the Australian Open Wednesday. The fast acts of the Swiss star helped her overcome a bad second set to win six straight down 0-2 to defeat Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 on Court 20 at Melbourne Park.
The series lead stood in the Kazak’s hands dating back to 2017 when she last defeated Bencic. In the two matches, she allowed the Swiss only one set win making it imperative to do her best. She went the distance against Katerina Siniakova slipping in the second set to take the third with a great hold of offense. With her trying to best her finish last season, making three a charm against the 23-year-old would be a huge boost to her already improved gameplay.
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She opened the scoring with a hold of serve that forced her to play deuce but put it away quickly. Putintseva had to fight back from 0-40 saving three break points to force deuce and win by the same result. They remained on serve through five before the Swiss youngster went for a key break that gave her a two-game margin over the Kazak. She was silenced for a time in the seventh but despite getting a point, she lost the game and quickly saw her lead vanish.
Putintseva evened the game consolidating the break with a good service hold that gave her serious momentum. She found herself in the lead after nine creating enough break point chances to defeat Bencic on serve. The 21-year-old battled to break back Putintseva and keep her chances to win the set alive. She took the 11th hoping that she could put the set away and start the second with major leverage. Bencic attacked the serve of the 24-year-old who double-faulted at the wrong time scoring the set on a crosscourt winner finishing one hour and six minutes.
The second set began with the Kazak getting her game rolling with a break of Bencic to start. She then rolled that into a hold before converting a double break in the third. She was soon up 4-0 assuring herself another set to be played. What the 24 year old didn’t expect was Bencic to swipe the pace away and conduct a sudden dominance. She recorded her first service hold in the fifth before holding Putintseva to just a point for the break.
She also followed the path winning her third straight before converting the double break leveling the score. The effort suddenly left her as Putintseva inched ahead in the ninth to earn a third break. Bencic tried to go for the break in the tenth to push them to further action in the set but lost two break point chances.
Putintseva failed to get her first set point attempt in the books but rallied to regain the AD point and force the deciding set into play. It took 51 minutes in a set that clearly had a slip of control from both players but the third would be absolutely key for one to hold and never let go.
Things began with Putintseva breaking Bencic early gaining free points on backhanded errors from the Swiss star. They continued to rattle her against Putintseva’s service that opened the gap two games to love. There soon came a surge of desperation that suddenly changed the course of the match. After Bencic put together a difficult game for Putintseva to play, she consolidated it with a break in the fourth on deuce.
She took the lead in the fifth letting the 24-year-old earn a point that became the highpoint of her strength. She used a lot of it in the sixth with an attack on Putintseva through every point. They were neck and neck with the Kazak getting to game point but able to secure it. She found herself in a tug of war for the AD point that spanned five breaks with Bencic making three a charm on break point attempts.
Putintseva had already given up four straight and was all out of ideas once the Swiss star held serve in the seventh. The 21-year-old cruised to gain control of the eighth earning two match points to put an end to their 2 hours and 47-minute match.
Bencic once again showed a major amount of tenacity to get her through challenging times to reach her second-best run at the Australian Open. Though her third round opponent was Petra Kvitova, the 21-year-old would go for broke with being able to find the momentum.
