Paula Badosa takes down Belinda Bencic in Sydney

Paula Badosa had to dig deep in order to defeat Belinda Bencic but she was able to do it in just under three hours 7-6(6) 3-6 6-3.

It was a great match between Paula Badosa and Belinda Bencic that almost lasted three hours. Both of these tennis players came into the match motivated to compete and it showed on the court. The first set was extremely tight lasting over 60 minutes and finishing only after the tiebreak. Badosa was the better player and was on top early but Bencic demonstrated tremendous fight.

She broke Badosa when the Spaniard served for the set at 5-3 and forced a tiebreak saving 5 match points up until that point. She saved one more in the tiebreak but the 7th was finally converted by Badosa to win the set. Bencic did not get discouraged and continued playing her game proving better in the 2nd set after Badosa started slipping.

Bencic did most of her damage on the 2nd serve as she won 9 of 13 points on Badosa's 2nd serve in the 2nd set and that proved more than enough to win the set with 6-3. The 3rd set was another interesting one where Bdosa once again established control early. She took a 3-1 lead but gave it away after some bad mistakes to make it 3-3.

Yet Bencic was unable to produce to the required effort to completely turn it around and ultimately lost out 3-6. Her 2nd serve play really cost her in the 3rd set but all in all a very good effort from both players.