Belinda Bencic fends off Maria Sakkari to reach Berlin Open final

Berlin [Germany], June 18 (ANI): No.8 seed Belinda Bencic continued her winning campaign in bett1open on Saturday as she prevailed over No.2 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece in a semifinal showdown in Berlin.
It took three hours and seven minutes for Bencic to dominate Sakkari 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the final. With this win, Bencic has reached her second successive Berlin Open final.
“I thought that was an incredible match. We both kind of pushed really hard, and we both didn’t give each other anything. I think it was high quality, of course, we held our serves as much as we could, and I really felt like we put on a show there,” Bencic said after the match.
Bencic will play either French Open finalist or top-seeded Ons Jabeur in Sunday’s final.
Bencic held a set point in the first-set tiebreak, but Sakkari obliterated that chance. The Greek then shot a backhand winner to achieve her first set point at 7-6. A return winner off the net cord gave Sakkari the first set.
In the second set, though, Bencic held the lead with confidence, maintaining 5-4 with three straight backhand winners followed by an ace. Bencic then altered her fifth break point of the next game with a return winner, leveling the match.
For the second set in a row, there were no breaks through 5-4 as the third set stayed a toe-to-toe match. But once again, Bencic took her chance in the tenth game, altering her third match point by following up a strong backhand with a winner.
The Swiss player has a chance to win the Berlin final after losing last year’s summit clash to Russian Liudmila Samsonova.
Bencic is seeking her second grass-court title, with her first coming at Eastbourne in 2015. (ANI)