Number 2 seed and this year’s Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek beat 13-seeded Belinda Bencic 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to reach the quarter finals at the Wuhan Open.
Swiatek broke serve in the second game to open up a 3-0 lead in the first set, but Bencic won five of the next six games to take a 5-4 lead earning a chance to serve out for the first set. Swiatek broke back in the 10thgame to force the set to the tie-break. Swiatek raced out to a 3-0 lead in the mini-break. Bencic pulled one of the two breaks back, but Swiatek earned another mini-break to win the tie-break 7-2.
Bencic broke serve in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. Swiatek broke straight back in the third game and held at 30 in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Swiatek converted her third break point in the seventh game and served out the win on her third match point.
Swiatek claimed the 125th WTA 1000 win of the season.
Bencic will take on Jasmine Paolini, who came back from one set down to beat Clara Tauson 3-6 6-1 3-1 after the Danish player retired from the match. “I think it’s always nice to get support during the match. In China, I feel it more than in other countries. So yeah, just happy to be here, and hopefully I’m going to be able to experience that as much as possible. For sure I wanted to play with confidence and make great decisions and not let her dictate. It was super hard and every game was tough. That’s why it was two sets in over two hours. I’m happy that I was there in the deciding moments to be solid and play one more shot”, said Swiatek.
