Switzerland was taking all the way to a decisive fifth match before sealing their 3-2 win over German with a doubles triumph for Martina Hingis and Belinda Bencic.
The second and final day in Leipzig was started off by the battle of No. 1 from each country. In this case it was the Australian Open champion and World No. 2 Angelique Kerber against the 18-year old World No. 11 Belinda Bencic. They have met twice before and it was Bencic who won both their matches in straight sets. In the beginning of the match, Kerber was clearly dominating, she was great on serve, defending very well so she was leading 4-1, 30-0 on Bencic serve. Suddenly something clicked with Bencic and she was level with Kerber, came back to win that game and two more, showing some really great shots when re-breaking Kerber. Both players were then dominant on their serve until the tiebreaker came. Kerber’s serving games were pretty surprising for me, not a single deuce occurred, but to her credit she was serving incredibly well today. Both players continued to be really strong on their serves throughout the tiebreaker, only one mini-break occurred in the whole tiebreaker which was what decided the ending of the set. The mini-break came at Kerber’s serve at 2-2 and from then on players just held on to their serve. Bencic prolonged Kerber’s wait for the first set won against her opponent, and won the tiebreaker 7-4, going from 1-4, 0-30 to 7-6(4).
In the second set, the crowd really started vocally supporting Kerber more than in the first set. That might have been one of the things that gave her the confidence to save 3 break points in the second game. Kerber was starting to visibly struggle on the serve, she let opportunities to win her service games easily slip bye and her first 2 had to go through deuce and then got broken at 3-5. Belinda effortlessly served out and still didn’t allow Kerber to win a single set against her. Also Bencic ended Kerber’s 8 match win streak she carried from Australia.
Belinda Bencic (SUI) – Angelique Kerber (GER) 7-6(4) 6-3
Instead of Andrea Petkovic, the captain Barbara Rittner decided to field Annika Beck for the second match, who showed some great form when she reached the 4th round at the Australian Open, beating her today’s opponent Timea Bacsinszky during her run. These two players had met once before and again it was a straight set win for Beck. Beck didn’t start her match too well, but neither did Bacsinszky when both ladies broke each other in the first two games. But from the beginning we could see that Bacsinszky was playing her game more, there was more spin, there was more slice from her than when she played Kerber. Beck kept struggling on her service games, but managed to pull through until. The ball was moving noticeably slower than in the previous match, the games and the points were long. It was only the fifth game when the match passed the 30 minute mark. The fifth and sixth game lasted over 10 minutes each, so it was obvious that this match would be around for a while, and the crowd seemed to love it. The drama in the first set continued as Beck broke to 5-3 but got broken right back and Bacsinszky successfully brought it back to 5-5. Beck then served out the first clean game of the match, putting Bacsinszky in the position of serving to stay in the set for the second time. Bacsinszky faced the first set point on her serve, double faulted and gave it away to Beck, thus losing the set 5-7 after grueling 1 hour and 15 minutes. Both players served and played really well throughout the set on their service games. At 4-4 we saw no break points and only one deuce. The players just kept winning their service games with relative ease, until at 4-5 Bacsinszky was serving to stay in the match and on the second break point she lost the match. Annika Beck successfully kept her winning record over Bacsinszky of not losing a set, and equaled the tie to 2-2, having the doubles be a decider.
Annika Beck (GER) – Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) 7-5 6-4
The crowd at the Leipziger Messe Arena was in full force as the decisive doubles match got underway. Switzerland had the bonus of world No.1 doubles player Martina Hingis on their team. Hingis is the current Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open doubles champion with Sania Mirza.
The experience of Hingis was pivotal for the doubles match and Switzerland’s Fed Cup survival. Paired with Belinda Bencic, the Swiss duo faced Andrea Petkovic and Anna-Lena Groenefeld. After initially getting off to a slow start by dropping their first service game of the match, Switzerland battled back to become the dominant team in the match. The Swiss pair fired 30 winners past the German team and impressive won 95% of their second service points to take Switzerland into their first Fed Cup semifinals since 1998.
WATCH the moment @swiss_tennis reached their first #FedCup semifinal since 1998! @mhingis @BelindaBencichttps://t.co/E9rX5yr7Gt
— Fed Cup (@FedCup) February 7, 2016
Martina Hingis/Belinda Bencic (SWI) – Andrea Petkovic/Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) 6-2 6-3
In the last four Switzerland will play either top seeds the Czech Republic or Romania.
