Semi final day in Dubai:
Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships - a WTA Premier 5 category tournament, on Hard Decoturf, in Dubai, UAE, 17-23 February 2019.
Defending champion:
Elina Svitolina who defeated Dasha Kasatkina 6-4 6-0
Elina Svitolina (6) v Belinda Bencic
Twice defending champion Svitolina was hoping to stop the giant killing run of Bencic who had slayed Sabalenka and Halep to reach the semis.
Bencic was fast out of the blocks, breaking Svitolina to lead 2-0.
After maintaining the break for a 3-1 lead, an ace sealing that game, Bencic cashed in on a series of Svitolina backhand mistakes to crack the Ukraine serve again. A Swiss backhand winner capped off the game and at 4-1 Bencic was closing in fast on a set lead.
5-1 arrived complete with more Svitolina errors and another Bencic ace to finalise the service hold.
Svitolina at last decided to offer some competition, a love game on serve started with a forehand winner and concluded with an ace.
However, nothing would stop the Swiss onslaught, and Bencic surrendered just a single point when serving out the set 6-2.
Set two began with two breaks of serve, before order was restored at least for the next three games, with just one break point raising its head. It lasted just a second, blasted out of existence by a timely ace.
3-2 was just the calm before a storm of fairly average tennis, points won through error rather than winners and a lack of initiative shown by both players.
Bencic lost her serve to love, a double fault and forehand failure the basis. Svitolina was the beneficiary, now leading 4-2. Of course she wasn’t able to consolidate, immediately broken to 15, double faults to start and end a game to forget.
Back on serve, Bencic was unable to enjoy the Svitolina charity, instead joining the double fault procession and adding a stream of errors. Another serve broken, and Svitolina led 5-3, somehow with a chance to win the set.
The sixth seed managed to save a break point and indeed held serve to win the set 6-3.
The deciding set saw both players raise the standard of tennis and this was reflected in the ability to hit more winners, restrict errors somewhat, and hold serve.
For six games no break points were faced.
Then Svitolina, who clearly wanted a third straight title, struck. A wide Bencic forehand in the seventh game put the Swiss player down three break points, and she could only fend off one of them.
Svitolina led 4-3 with serve to come.
The break was consolidated, and at 3-5 Bencic had to hold serve to remain in the semi final. A love game, finished with an ace, did exactly that, but still Svitolina had the chance to serve for the match.
A forehand return winner gave Bencic her seventh point in succession, and Svitolina was down 0-40. A double fault confirmed a dropped serve and games were 5-5. Bencic had performed another comeback when all appeared lost.
Svitolina’s next attempt to hold serve was at 5-6, and it was to stay in the match. Not the greatest start was a double fault, and a forehand hit long gave two match points to Bencic. These were saved, as was a third, this one by an ace.
A tie break would have to solve the impasse.
The first point against serve went to Bencic who kept that edge until a forehand error on the fifth point. The very next point, on the Svitolina serve, landed in the Swiss pocket thanks to a Ukraine forehand hitting the net.
Bencic, leading 4-3, had two serves to come, and Svitolina errors from both sides brought up three match points.
A winning lob was enough for Belinda Bencic to end the reign of Elina Svitolina in Dubai 6-2 3-6 7-6(3)
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