Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic fought back from a set down to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open with a 4-6 6-2 6-4 win over Kateryna Bondarenko from the Ukraine in the Rod Laver Arena after a hard-fought three-set match.
Number 12 seed Bencic went up a break in the first set but she made some errors allowing Bondarenko to break back. The Ukrainian player broke again to love in the 10th game to take the first set 6-4 after 33 minutes.
Bencic broke twice in the fifth and in the seventh games of the second set to clinch the second set 6-2. The Swiss rising star fended off the only break point she faced. Bencic took a break lead in the third game of the decider but Bondarenko broke back. Bencic broke for the fifth time at 4-all. Bencic saved a break point to serve out the match in 1 hour and 50 minutes. Bencic will face Maria Sharapova who clinched her 600th career win with her 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 6-0 over Lauren Davis.
“I am very happy I won. I still feel there can be a lot of improvement in my game and how I can play. I see it as a positive thing. I am happy I fought through even if it wasn’t perfect. It was a tough piece of work for me.
Another rising star Daria Gavrilova followed up her win over Petra Kvitova with a hard-fought three-set win over 28th seed seed Kristina Mladenovic with 6-4 4-6 11-9 in the Hisense Arena.
Gavrilova claimed a hard-fought first set before Mladenovic won a tight second set. The match came down to an epic 96-minute third set where Gavrilova secured a dramatic win after a very close battle. She was broken when she was serving for the match at 5-4. She earned a lot of break point chances but she clinched her opportunity in the 19th game as Mladenovic made her 10th double fault on the break point. Gavrilova held her nerve to seal a nail-biting win after 2 hours and 51 minutes.
Gavrilova, who got Australian passport last month, emerged on the international stage in 2010 when she won the Youth Olympic Games and the US Open Junior title. She made her breakthrough last year when she beat Maria Sharapova in the second round in Miami before reaching the semifinals at the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome after beating Ana Ivanovic on her 8th match point. In the Italian capital Gavrilova lost to Sharapova in straight sets in the semifinal.
“I am really excited and want to hug the whole stadium. I get very emotional on the court. I get frustrated which you can all probably see, but you can also see it when I am happy and I am glad you can see tat as well. The crowd was great and pulled me through in the end. I can’t thank them enough”, said Gavrilova.
