It took 3 hours and 7 minutes, but Belinda Bencic is back in the bett1open final for the second straight year.
No.8 seed Bencic prevailed in one of the ten longest matches of the season to outlast No.2 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 in a grueling semifinal showdown in Berlin.
By the numbers: Bencic is now 4-2 lifetime against Top 10 players on grass, as she moves into the fifth grass-court final of her career. Bencic seeks her second grass-court title, with her first coming at Eastbourne in 2015.
Bencic, who lost to Liudmila Samsonova in last year's Berlin final, was dominant behind her backhand, off of which she had 19 of her 41 winners.
Last year's Olympic gold medalist Bencic is now 1-1 against Sakkari at tour level. Sakkari had previously topped the Swiss player in the 2020 St. Petersburg quarterfinals on indoor hard court.
Key plays: Bencic held a set point at 6-5 in the first-set tiebreak, but Sakkari erased that chance. The Greek then fired a backhand winner to garner her first set point at 7-6. A return winner off the netcord gave Sakkari the first set after 72 topsy-turvy minutes.
In the second set, though, Bencic grabbed the lead with aplomb, holding at love for 5-4 with three straight backhand winners followed by an ace. Bencic then converted her fifth break point of the next game with a return winner, leveling the match.
For the second set in a row, there were no breaks through 5-4 as the third set stayed closely contested. But once again, Bencic took her chance in the tenth game, converting her third match point by following up a strong backhand with a putaway winner.
More to come...