TENNIS US OPEN: Two-time major doubles champion Shuai Peng has moved one step closer to a chance to win her first major singles title as she knocked out teenage superstar Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-1
Both 28-year-old Shuai Peng and 17-year-old Belinda Bencic have caused a lot of upsets at this year’s US Open en route to their first major quarterfinal match. Between the two of them, they have knocked out six seeded players, three of which were in the top 10. Now, they play each other for a place in a major semifinal. The stakes were high and so were the temperatures as conditions continue to be blistering in New York. This was yet another battle of age verses experience; the ingénue against the veteran. The moment perhaps was too big for the teenager as Peng took control of this match quite early and never let go. The Chinese player moved into her first major single semifinal with a 6-2 6-1 in just over an hour.
There seemed to have been no signs of nerves as both players had relatively easy opening service games. However, the turning point of the match came quite early in the 3rd game as Bencic saw two break points to go up 2-1. Peng produced two of her biggest serves to erase those break chances and went on to hold. Bencic would never see another opportunity to break again in the entire match. Peng immediately broke Bencic in her next service game and raced to a 5-2 lead. Peng was far too steady for Bencic to get any momentum going her way. Serving to stay in the set, Bencic committed yet another error to give Peng a set point. Peng unleashed on her backhand for a winner and the 1st set, 6-2.
In the 2nd set, it was more of the same. Peng continued her winning streak. She won the first 5 games of the set before Bencic was able to hold serve at love. Peng served it out with relative ease for her biggest career win to date in singles. Peng was ecstatic after the match with her win and first major semifinal appearance, “[I]t’s really happy what I did it now. And then thinking from the beginning year I was doing lot of fitness and also like I practice, try to improve my game.” Peng went on to say that she feels that everything came together at this tournament especially her nerves which she felt prevented her from doing well in the past.
“[S]he played really well … I didn’t do so – I had like little outs and a lot of unforced errors. She served good and she didn’t let me come to the match back again,” Bencic surmised after the match. The statistics for the match show Bencic’s view on the match to be true. Peng won 73% of her 1st serve points and 65% on her 2nd serve. Bencic on the other hand was winning only 50% of her 1st serve point and 53% on her 2nd serve. Bencic also had 19 errors for the match compared to only 7 from Peng. Peng awaits the winner of the Caroline Wozniacki (10) verses Sara Errani (13).
