February 13, (THEWILL) – Belinda Bencic made a triumphant comeback to win the Abu Dhabi Open, beating Liudmila Samsonova in a thrilling final match.
The world number nine endured a tough challenge as she faced three championship points, but she managed to rally and come back to win the match 1-6 7-6(8) 6-4. It started from the first set where Samsonova dominated, registering an impressive 89% on her first service points won. The Russian needed just 36 minutes to take the lead.
Despite the early setback, Bencic fought back in the second set and took an early break. However, she missed an opportunity to serve out the set when she lost her serve at 5-4. The match then went into a tie-break and it looked like Samsonova was on the brink of her fifth WTA title, but Bencic proved to be stronger in the longer rallies and eventually forced a decider.
In the third set, Samsonova’s brilliant serving let her down as she was surprisingly broken to love to go 2-1 down. Although she broke back immediately, she surrendered her serve again, and Bencic, who was now in the ascendancy, was able to serve out the match for the title.
This victory marks Bencic’s eighth WTA tour title and second of 2023 following her Adelaide International triumph in January. In her post-match interview, she said: “I’m really happy to walk away with the title here and I think I played some really good matches. I proved to myself that I can really fight hard and just stay in the matches and somehow turn it around.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
