Belinda Bencic continued her magical run at the Tokyo
Olympic Games by defeating
Elena Rybakina 7-6(2) 4-6 6-3.
Belinda Bencic is in her first Olympic final where she will either face Svitolina or Vondrousova. Either way, she is guaranteed a medal it just remains to be seen whether it's a gold or a silver one. Bencic came into this match as an underdog but she did not perform like it.
She struck first in the match breaking Rybakina early to take a 2-1 but the Kazakhstani player came right back with a fury o win 3 games in a row taking a 5-2 lead. Then it was time for Bencic to make a comeback and she did making it 5-5 before the set went to the tiebreak. In the end, Bencic won it 7-2 after saving 5 set points in total.
It exemplified this match perfectly and it had a lot of twists and turns. In the 2nd set, Bencic opened better with a 2-0 lead but Rybakina came back to tie it up. Players traded a few games before Rybakina broke Bencic at the perfect time to take a 5-3 lead. She then closed it out with 6-4.
That momentum allowed her to open the final set better as she took an early 2-0 lead. Bencic came back to make it 2-2 before losing her serve once again. However, Rybakina could not hold her own serve making it 3-3. From there Bencic took over as the young player from Kazakhstan collapsed losing 3 games in a row to lose the set 3-6 and the match.
A great result for Bencic who has had a very bad season so far. Rybakina played great but lacked the experience to close out the biggest match of her career so far.