Top-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland knocked out hometown favorite Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (4), 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy quarterfinals in Russia.
FILE PHOTO: Tennis – Australian Open – Second Round, Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia – January 23, 2020 Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic celebrates winning the match against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
Bencic won the first five points of the tiebreak and took the set on her second set point. She earned the only service break of the second set in the seventh game and finished the win in one hour, 44 minutes.
Bencic will face the winner of Thursday’s match between No. 6 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece and French qualifier Alize Cornet.
Oceane Dodin of France upset No. 4 seed Johanna Konta of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4. Dodin’s quarterfinal opponent will be No. 8 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who eliminated France’s Fiona Ferro 6-3, 6-4. Russia’s Anastasia Potapova booked her spot in the last eight with a 7-6 (2), 6-3 win over Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.
GSB Thailand Open
No. 1 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine breezed into the second round in Hua Hin with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands in 79 minutes.
Svitolina saved 7 of 9 break points and took advantage of 11 double faults by Schoofs. She will next take on Australian qualifier Storm Sanders, a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri.
No. 5 seed Magda Linette of Poland celebrated her 28th birthday with a 6-2, 6-2 first-round victory over Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko.
In round of 16 action, No. 3 seed Qiang Wang of China beat Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa 6-3, 6-4, No. 4 Saisai Zheng of China defeated Taiwan’s En-Shuo Liang 6-4, 6-3, Switzerland’s Leonie Kung upset No. 7 Lin Zhu of China 6-3, 6-1, and No. 8 Nao Hibino of Japan crushed Thailand’s Peangtarn Plipuech 6-0, 6-1.
—Field Level Media