Tokyo Redemption: Belinda Bencic scoops 10th career title at Pan Pacific Open after losing final 10 years ago

Belinda Bencic won the Pan Pacific Open on Sunday in Tokyo defeating Linda Noskova 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 22 minutes to win a 10th career title and a second of the season. Albeit it has redemption on the brain as Bencic lost the final 10 years ago of this tournament as an 18-year-old.

10 years on at 28, Bencic has become a mother and has thrived at times on her return to the sport after starting a family winning the Abu Dhabi Open earlier this season and now has the Pan Pacific Open on her mantle. She entered the final at a clear disadvantage too as while she had spent over five hours on court, Noskova had one of the oddest runs to a final in the past year.

She played just once beating McCartney Kessler in three sets as Anna Kalinskaya and Moyuka Uchijima as well as Elena Rybakina either quit during the match in the case of the former or they withdrew before the match started. A good run if you can get it and in reality it would've been easy to think that Noskova would ease to victory.

Her Quarter-Final win over Karolina Muchova saw her come back from a set down and save a match point but in reality the final was perhaps the simplest assignment yet for Bencic who won against Noskova 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 22 minutes to gain redemption.

She now climbs to World No.11 putting her on the cusp of the world's top 10 likely joining Ekaterina Alexandrova very soon in gatecrashing that party with points set to fall off from the WTA Finals and Australian Open of course in short order. Bencic only just returned this past January fully so has not much to defend for. a bit so is likely to ascend soon enough.

It is also the second time in three years she has won multiple titles in a season. Pretty remarkable when the year in between that she became a mother for the first time.

“It was wonderful playing in front of you guys,” Bencic said after the match. “The last time I won here was the Tokyo Olympics when it was an empty stadium, so it was a completely different atmosphere, but it was great to play in front of you guys. I love to play in Japan, so I’m super happy to finally win this tournament.”

During the contest she saved all 10 break points she faced including seven in the second set. The first three came in the opening game. After Noskova hit two winners to earn a break point, Bencic responded to turn the lights off of Noskova's charge. She forced her to hit an error into the net and Bencic showed her grit to hold from there in a run that sent her on her way.

Noskova struggled to match her opponent's intensity and it showed. Bencic broke her opponent twice to close out the first set in 32 minutes. Bencic and Noskova traded holds to begin the second set but she refused to let the fact that she was being tested throw the error gauntlet down. On the first four break points at 2-2, she waited and bided her time for errors and she got them. Bencic won the fifth break point of the game and held for 3-2.

Noskova held at 3-3 but that was her last hold as Bencic went on the run from there converting a break before serving out the match. A celebration scream which seemed to be more releasing the emotion of being on court all week as well as sealing redemption. An incredible run and while she plays next week technically the best end to the year she could've hoped for.