World No.12 Belinda Bencic opened her season with a tense 7-6(0), 6-3 win over No. 51 Yulia Putintseva on Day 1 of the United Cup in Brisbane. The win gave Switzerland a 1-0 lead over Kazakhstan in Group B.
Bencic secured the straight-set win by coolly reeling in Putintseva, who led by a break early in both sets. After falling behind 4-1 in the opening set, Bencic fought off three set points on her serve to level at 5-5. She took her momentum into the tie-break, where she kept a clean sheet to secure the opening set after 72 minutes.
“I’m happy I kept fighting,” Bencic said. “For sure the positive attitude as well from my team, the crowd, and the great atmosphere got me through.”
Bencic pulled off another comeback in the second set, though with fewer dramatics. Despite falling behind 1-3, the Swiss Olympic champion never lost her cool. With both team captain Stan Wawrinka and coach Dmitry Tursunov urging her on, Bencic cleaned up her errors and ratcheted up the pressure to win the next five games.
“How can you not listen to such a champion when he’s telling you things,” Bencic said, referring to Wawrinka. “I was trying to listen, to focus, and do what I had to do.”
The victory leveled Bencic’s head-to-head against Putintseva to 3-3.
Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler will face Timofey Skatov in the men’s No.2 singles match to close out the night session at Pat Rafter Arena.
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