By Chris Oddo | Friday June 10, 2016
Belinda Bencic set up a semifinal with Kristina Mladenovic at the Ricoh Open.
Photo Source: Ricoh Open
Belinda Bencic continued her run at the Ricoh Open with a victory over a friend and compatriot on Friday. The 19-year-old defeated Viktorija Golubic in two tight sets, 7-6(6), 7-6(2), on Friday, to set up a semifinal with Kristina Mladenovic.
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The pair met in the quarterfinals at ‘s-Hertogenbosch last year, with Bencic emerging with a three-set victory en route to the quarterfinals.
Bencic and Mladenovic are two of the WTA Tour’s hottest grass court players r the last year. The pair have gone a combined 22-4 since the beginning of 2015 on the surface.
Bencic improves to 3-0 since returning from a two-month injury hiatus due to a back injury. She last played in early April at Charleston.
On Friday the Swiss was pushed by Golubic, but played more solidly on the bigger points to come away with the hard-fought victory in two tiebreakers.
The top seed had her struggles on serve, and let leads slip in both sets. She faced ten break points, saving six, and tossed in six double-faults.
Though she served for the opening set twice but was broken each time and needed to win it in a tiebreaker.
But Bencic played with a sense of belief on the big points, and was able to find the right shots under pressure. She saved two set points in the first-set tiebreaker, winning the last four points to claim the set.
Bencic let slip a 4-2 lead in set two, but managed to win a one-sided tiebreaker, converting on her first match point as a Golubic forehand sailed wide in the breaker.
Mladenovic had an easier day. She eased past Belgian qualifier Elise Mertens, 7-5, 6-3, to reach her second semifinal of the season. Mertens earned her first tour-level win earlier in the week when she took out Eugenie Bouchard, and backed it up with a win over Aleksandra Krunic. But on Friday, Mladenovic relentless attacked her second serve and broke her two teams in each set to cruise to victory in 82 minutes.
Saturday’s other semifinal will be an all-American affair, as 2014 ‘s-Hertogenbosch champion CoCo Vandeweghe and Madison Brengle will square off. Vandeweghe raced past Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina, 6-2, 6-2, to notch her 20th career win on grass against 11 losses (11-4 since 2015).
Brengle reached her third career semifinal with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova.