Iga Swiatek admitted playing her first tie-break of the season was “stressful as hell” but noted that she was “really happy” with the fact that she was able to beat Belinda Bencic in two sets. On Monday, Poland’s Swiatek defeated Swiss tennis star Bencic 6-3 7-6 (3) at the United Cup.
“I’m a perfectionist, but I’m really happy with my performance today because Belinda is playing really fast, taking the ball really early, so it’s a totally different rhythm. On this fast surface it’s really, really hard.
I got my energy up for the tiebreaker. It was stressful as hell, the first tiebreak of the season, but I’m pretty happy that I made it,” Swiatek said after the match, as quoted on the WTA website.
How Swiatek defeated Bencic
Swiatek made a good start to the match as she broke Bencic in the fourth game and led 4-1 after the first five games.
But Bencic refused to quit after going down by a break as she earned her first break point chances in the seventh game and broke back Swiatek to cut the deficit to 4-3. However, blowing an early break didn’t impact Swiatek, who broke Bencic again in the eighth game to open a 5-3 lead.
In the ninth game, Swiatek routinely served out for the first set. After winning the first set, Swiatek had a break point in the first game of the second set but didn’t convert. Swiatek maybe didn’t break Bencic in the first game but she managed to do so in the third game.
With Swiatek 4-2 up in the second set, the Pole also had a break point which could have given her a double-break lead. But Bencic saved that break point and when Swiatek was serving for the match in the 10th game, the Swiss broke back and managed to force a tie-break.
After failing to serve out for the match, Swiatek regained her focus in the tie-break and managed to realize her first match point and complete a two-set win.
