Abu Dhabi
Qualifier Kalinskaya catches Iga out
Qualifier Anna Kalinskaya handed Iga Swiatek only her second defeat of the season as the No. 40 stunned the top seed 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final of the WTA Dubai event on Friday.
The upset shock in one and three-quarter hours put the 25-year-old into the Saturday title match – the first of her career at the Tour level – against Jasmine Paolini, who knocked out Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 7-6 (6).
The win was her third over a Grand Slam champion here after defeating 2017 Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko and reigning US Open holder Coco Gauff.
Swiatek had an eight-match win streak on the go after winning last week’s Abu Dhabi trophy for the third straight edition; the 22-year-old Pole now stands 14-2 this season.
The challenger becomes only the second woman after Caroline Garcia (2022 Cincinnati champion) to reach a 1000-level final.
Kalinskaya swept 10 of the last 14 games as Swiatek struggled to fight back from a set and 5-2 down. The seed lost a break in the first set, dropping her serve twice in a row to lose the opener.
Swiatek saved two match points in the eighth game while fighting to earn 3-5 in the second set; but Kalinskaya overcame another pair of break points in the concluding game and served out victory in her third chance.
It’s a bit surprising, for sure. I wasn’t feeling very well before the tournament,” the winner said.
“I had to play qualies. I stayed in the moment just match by match.
“I’m super happy to be in the final. I can’t believe it yet. But tomorrow is just another day. I’m looking forward to playing my first big final.”
The outsider said she played on instinct: “In the beginning of the second set I didn’t think too much. I just had to play point by point.
“I had to stay calm and just follow the plan that I had in my mind. I had to stayaggressive and keep moving her.
“I was not lucky – I deserved it.
“I was up 5-2. I had two match points. Unfortunately it didn’t go as I wish it could. I had to reset and start playing point by point.
“When I finished the match, I didn’t feel like it was over because I was still mentally ready to play, I was just very focused.”
20 year old Czech Sara Bejlek continued her winning run at the Cincinnati Open as she overturned Madison Keys to reach her first ever WTA 1000 semi-final
She won 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) in the quarter-finals as she looks to winning a second WTA title, having won the Abu Dhabi Open earlier in the year.
She will face fourth seed Coco Gauff.
Unseeded Bejlek, beat three major champions on her run to the final four, after knocking out world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the previous round and Barbora Krejcikova before that.
Bejlek was a set down and 1-3 down in the second set but she won five of the next six games to level the match and again fought back from 4-2 down in the tie-break to win in two hours and 37 minutes.
The world number 35 said: “We had a kind of big talk with my team a couple of weeks ago, and since that moment I feel that it’s going quite well and I’m getting better in the believing in myself and improving also physically on the court.”
Main photo:- Sara Bejlek winning in Cincy – by WTATennis.com
Belinda Bencic began the Madrid Masters with a win while three-time tournament winner Petra Kvitova was knocked out as the latest crop of tennis mothers went into Wednesday action on the Spanish clay,
Swiss Bencic celebrated the first birthday of daughter Bella by crushing Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez with the loss of just two games in a one-hour rout.
Bencic, a former top 10 player and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist who has already won a title this season in Abu Dhabi, returned from her maternity pause last October and has risen to a 42nd ranking.
She won eight of the last 10 points to clinch her opening victory.
There was no luck for Kvitova, with the Czech going down to Katie Volynets 6-4, 6-0.
Kvitova ran off with the early 4-1 lead but was reeled in as her US opponent swept the next 11 games.
The 35-year-old Kvitova has played only four comeback matches since returning in February and has yet to earn a match win.
Another WTA player now a parent, Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-5, requiring more than an hour per set and helped by 10 double-faults from her veteran opponent who had beaten her in all eight of their previous matches.
One-time No. 11 Sevastova gave birth in December, 2022, and took nearly two years away from the Tour for her pregnancy and infant care period.
But her return was derailed by a knee injury early last season, which forced to miss another year and a bit of competition. She began her latest comeback last week at a minor event in Slovenia.
Sevastova, a 2023 Madrid semi-finalist, reached the second round against Jelena Ostapenko, champion on Monday in Stuttgart.
Main photo:- Belinda Bencic with daughter Bella
Belinda Bencic held nine-month-old daughter Bella in one arm and the WTA Abu Dhabi trophy in the other after claiming the title on Saturday in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 fightback finals win over Ashlyn Krueger.
The Swiss who won Olympic gold in Tokyo had only returned to the Tour last autumn; she backed up her trophy here from 2023, the year before she left the circuit for a pregnancy pause.
Bencic worked for nearly two and a half hours to secure victory in only her fourth event since returning to tennis; she reached the Australian Open fourth round last month in a show of strength and an indication of possible things to come.
She is the first mother to claim a singles title since Elina Svitolina in Strasbourg, May, 2023.
Bencic now owns nine WTA trophies and stands a flawless 9-0 at the Gulf venue.
The 27-year-old Swiss will shoot up the rankings from 157th to around 65th. She will miss next week’s tournament in Doha but will reappear in the final tournament of the February Gulf swing in Dubai from February 17.
She won that prestigious UAE event in 2019.
Main photo:- Belinda Bencic and daughter Bella with Abu Dhabi Trophy – by WTATennis.com
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