Belinda Bencic won her second consecutive singles match at the Hopman Cup in Perth beating Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 3-6 6-3 after 2 hours. The Swiss player saved four out of the five break points she faced. With this win the former world number 7 has continued her come-back after finishing the 2017 season on a high-note with 15 consecutive match wins and three ITF titles, which enabled her to finish last year inside the top 80.
Bencic played one of her best matches in recent times breaking Pavlyuchenkova twice in the second and sixth games to take a 6-1 win in the first set without facing any break points. Pavlyuchenkova fended off four break points in the fifth game of the second set. The Russian player broke serve in the eighth game and held serve at love to win the second set 6-3 forcing the match to the decider. Bencic got a break in the second game of the third set to race out to a 4-1 lead. Pavlyuchenkova brought up two break points in the seventh game, but Bencic fended them off before holding serve in the 9th game to seal the second win for Switzerland after Roger Federer beat Karen Khachanov in the first match.
Federer and Bencic won the mixed doubles match in three sets by 4-3 3-4 4-1 to clinch their second 3-0 at this year’s Hopman Cup. Bencic saved two break points in the third game of the third set. Federer and Bencic broke serve in the next game. The Swiss team closed out the match in the fifth game, as Federer saved three break points.
“We played some really good tennis. It wasn’t easy. We were obviously nervous playing in front of so many people. I wanted to fight my way back without taking wildcards into big tournaments and maybe losing in early rounds. I really wanted to work my ranking up again and get my confidence back.
