Hard-Luck Bencic Tumbles to Defeat in Wuhan

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Hard-Luck Bencic Tumbles to Defeat in Wuhan

The hard luck continues for Switzerland’s Belinca Bencic. The 19-year-old, who climbed as high as No. 7 in the world this season, has since been besieged by injuries to her back and wrist and is now outside of the Top 20 at 26.

More: Wozniacki Claims First Title in 19 Months, Winning Tokyo

Trying to put the pieces back together and regain her form has proven difficult for the talented Bencic, and it got even more difficult on Sunday when she suffered an awkward fall during the second set of her first-round match with Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.

Bencic slipped in the midcourt and took a hard tumble that may have re-injured the lower back problem that took her off the tour for several months this season.

She took a long time of court with the trainer but eventually retired, down 3-6, 4-3 to Kuznetsova.

Kuznetsova on Bencic: I hope its not too bad. She has been struggling w injuries so I feel really sorry for her. I hope she recovers fast pic.twitter.com/R3qUTxnKpU
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) September 25, 2016

Def one of the thoughest years for me ever. But every single one of your supporting messages are making me feel better. THANK YOU everyone❤️
— Belinda Bencic (@BelindaBencic) September 25, 2016

Belinda Bencic statement after retiring to Svetlana Kuznetsova @wuhanopentennis. May be same injury as in the spring. pic.twitter.com/KrB3JP7TXD
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) September 25, 2016

Another Swiss was also forced to retired on Sunday at Wuhan. No. 12-seeded Timea Bacsinszky pulled out with illness down a set to Louisa Chirico.

Other Day 1 winners in Wuhan were:

No. 13-seeded Robert Vinci d. Monica Puig, 6-3, 6-3
Yanina Wickmayer d. Shelby Rogers, 7-6(1), 6-3
Irina-Camelia Begu d. Elizaveta Kulichkova, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2
Yaroslava Shvedova d. Zheng Saisai, 6-0, 6-3
Ekaterina Makarova d. Sabine Lisicki, 6-1, 6-2
Lucie Safarova d. Varvara Lepchenko, 7-5, 6-3
Katerina Siniakova d. Timea Babos, 6-3, 7-5
Laura Siegemund d. Danka Kovinic, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4

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