World No. 9 Belinda Bencic came back from the brink of defeat to pull off a victory over an opponent she had never previously beaten and capture her second Hologic WTA Tour singles title of the year at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open.
No.2 seed Bencic saved three championship points in the second-set tiebreak before overcoming No.8 seed Liudmila Samsonova 1-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 in Sunday’s stirring 2-hour and 48-minute final. Bencic claimed the eighth WTA singles title of her career with the comeback win.
“It’s been a really tight match, and I’m happy to turn these match points around,” Bencic said, after her win.
“I just really tried hanging in there and scramble for every point, and just do my best. I’m really happy to walk away with the title here and I think I played some really good matches, but they were also tough. I proved to myself that I can really fight hard and just stay in the matches and somehow turn it around.”
By the numbers: Switzerland’s Bencic is now the tour leader in match-wins this season, with 12. She passes Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, who has won her first 11 matches of 2023. Bencic also joins Sabalenka as the only two-time titlists so far this year. She adds the Abu Dhabi crown to her Adelaide International 2 title from last month.
To make that happen, Bencic had to earn her first win over Samsonova in four attempts. Samsonova defeated Bencic in the 2021 Berlin final to win her first career title, and she picked up two more wins against the Swiss player that year, at Luxembourg and the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
With Sunday’s win, Bencic not only claimed her first victory over Samsonova, but she also ended Samsonova’s undefeated record in WTA singles finals. World No.19 Samsonova had been a perfect 4-0 in championship matches on tour before this match.
Key moments: Samsonova was impeccable in the first set, with 16 winners to only five unforced errors. But Bencic held on through a tense second set to make her move, saving three break points at 5-5 with some of her most powerful serves and groundstrokes of the day.
In the second-set tiebreak, Samsonova held championship points at 6-4, 6-5, and 8-7, but Bencic withstood each of those chances, controlling the rallies before forcing errors. Then, on Bencic’s second set point at 9-8, Samsonova misfired a backhand into the net.
In the third set, Bencic forced another error with a forehand service return to claim the pivotal break at 3-2, and she held on from there to earn victory. Samsonova finished the match with 20 more winners than Bencic, but Bencic had 19 fewer unforced errors than her opponent.