Belinda Bencic's best-ever run at the Miami Open continued on Tuesday with her best performance of the tournament so far. She needed just 69 minutes to win her quarterfinal match against wildcard Daria Saville of Australia, 6-1, 6-2, to reach the last four in Miami for the first time.
The Tokyo gold medalist and No.22 seed is through to her first semifinal at WTA 1000 level since the 2019 Mutua Madrid Open, and first this year. It's her fifth semifinal at this level in her career, and her best-ever run in six main draws played in Miami.
She's the third Swiss player to get this far in tournament history, joining Martina Hingis (1997-2001) and Timea Bacsinszky (2016), and will face Naomi Osaka for a spot in the final.
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Tuesday's match saw Bencic and Saville reunited on the match court for the first time in seven years. Though Saville had won both of their last meetings in 2015, the last on clay in Rome from a 7-6(2), 4-2 deficit, there was no such threat of defeat for Bencic at Hard Rock Stadium. The match's early games were tight: Bencic broke on her third chance in the opening game and saved five break points against her for 2-0, while Saville denied her a chance to lead 3-0 before holding.
From there, Bencic won eight straight games, with a point for nine straight, before Saville stopped the run. Never one to lose without a fight, as evidenced by her nearly three-hour win in Round 3 against Lucia Bronzetti where she saved match point, Saville nipped two straight games before Bencic won eight of the last nine points.
"I'm really happy. I really thought it was going to be a complicated match," Bencic said. "Daria, she plays very different. She stays far behind the baseline, so my plan was to attack for sure. I'm happy it's going better against and I'm back on track."
My Goodluck Charm 🍀🙏🏽 https://t.co/sfnkw5upsY
— Belinda Bencic (@BelindaBencic) March 29, 2022
Bencic takes a 3-1 head-to-head edge into her semifinal against Osaka. She won all three meetings between the two in 2019, which included victories at both Indian Wells and the US Open, where Osaka was the defending champion.