No.2 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland clinched her 11th match-win of the year on Saturday, easing past No.6 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-2, 6-3 to reach the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open final.
Bencic needed an hour and a half to collect her semifinal victory and take a spot in her second final of the season. Bencic won the Adelaide International 2 last month for her seventh career WTA singles title.
World No.9 Bencic now ties Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka for the most tour-level match-wins of 2023 thus far. Bencic came into Saturday tied for second place with Caroline Garcia and Zhu Lin, who have each won 10 matches this season.
"The work we're putting in on the practice court is showing already. I didn't expect it to go so fast, but that doesn't mean we have to slow down."@BelindaBencic | #MubadalaAbuDhabiOpen pic.twitter.com/h4vh1AgSJB
— wta (@WTA) February 11, 2023
Bencic put Haddad Maia's winning streak against Top 10 players to an end with the semifinal win. Haddad Maia had prevailed in her last six matches against Top 10 opponents, including her upset of Australian Open finalist Elena Rybakina in Friday's quarterfinals.
There was a huge disparity in the amount of time each player spent getting to their clash this week. Haddad Maia had taken a total of seven hours and 43 minutes to win a trio of three-setters, while Bencic had spent only three hours and 20 minutes on court in her earlier rounds.
Bencic made more short work on Saturday, winning nearly three-quarters of her first-service points and erasing the only break point she faced all day.
It all comes down to this 🍿
— wta (@WTA) February 11, 2023
Will Liudmila Samsonova or @BelindaBencic be the last one standing in Abu Dhabi 🏆#MubadalaAbuDhabiOpen pic.twitter.com/HEmRw97EUo
In the final, Bencic will meet No.8 seed Liudmila Samsonova, who outlasted Zheng Qinwen 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in 2 hours and 19 minutes.
World No.19 Samsonova won three titles last season, including in Tokyo, where she defeated Zheng in the final. Samsonova repeated that feat in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, taking a 2-1 lead in their head-to-head.
Read more: Zheng Qinwen graces cover of GQ China
"It was an amazing match, Qinwen played unbelievable," Samsonova said afterward. "At the end, I think I was more solid, and this was the key, I think -- and of course the serve, I was serving very well."
Aces rained down from both powerful players, with Samsonova hitting 10, and Zheng firing 15. In the third set, it was Samsonova who eked out the win by saving three break points in that set while converting the only one she held in the decider -- on match point.
At 4-4 in the third set, Samsonova held at love, quickly putting service pressure on Zheng. In the next game, a netted forehand by Zheng gave Samsonova double match point, and Samsonova converted her first opportunity by forcing a long error with a sturdy service return.
"I was trying to be more aggressive for sure, after the second set," Samsonova said. "I was trying to push myself to do better, and be more aggressive. And then of course I was very, very focused on my serve."
Head to Head
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Samsonova holds a 3-0 head-to-head lead over Bencic going into Sunday's final. In fact, Samsonova won her first title, on the grass of Berlin in 2021, by beating Bencic in the final. Samsonova is also an undefeated 4-0 in WTA singles finals in her career.
