By Adrianna Outlaw | Tuesday, February 8, 2023
Second-seeded Belinda Bencic beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 7-5 to reach the Mubadala Abu Dhabi quarterfinals today.
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
One of the most intriguing offseason pairings saw Belinda Bencic hire Dmitry Tursunov as her new coach.
This partnership continues paying dividends this season.
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Olympic gold-medal champion Bencic rallied from a break down in the second set stopping Marta Kostuk 6-4, 7-5 to reach the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open quarterfinals today.
Former world No. 4 Bencic improved to 9-2 on the season with her lone loss coming in the Australian Open round of 16 to eventual-champion Aryan Sabalenka.
"I have expected a really tough match," Bencic said. "Marta is a very good player so I was expecting it to be a tough battle and I'm happy with the level. I thought it was a good match. Thanks to some people that stayed and were supporting us.
"I feel like I'm doing well I'm playing a lot of matches, which is important. We're doing the work on the practice court. I'm happy that I start to implement some things. Hopefully I can go further and just keep improving match by match."
The second-seeded Swiss defeated three Top 10-players in succession: Caroline Garcia, Veronika Kudermetova and Daria Kasatkina to claim her seventh career title in Adelaide last month.
Bencic hit a bold forehand drive volley to break for a 6-5 second-set lead. Bencic twisted a service winner out wide to seal a 95-minute win.
Next up for Bencic is either hard-hitting Estonian Anett Kontaveit or American Shelby Rogers.
Earlier, Kudermetova broke six times in a 6-1, 7-5 conquest of 2021 Australian Open doubles champion Elise Mertens.
The fourth-seeded Kudermetova will face either 2021 Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova or eighth-seeded Liudmila Samsonova for a semifinal spot.
Qinwen Zheng zapped 10 aces against four double faults stopping former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 7-6(10), 6-1.
Zheng saved a set point in the opening set then rolled through the second set.
"I just play that moment and focus on my game," Zheng said. "Even if I lost that set there is still another set to go.
"I will just play my game and fight to the end. I always try to improve my game doesn't matter who is in front of me. That's tennis and I wish I can continue my high level. It's my first time playing this tournament the first time is always so special.
"I wish I can do good here, but not too much pressure just round by round."