Reigning Olympic singles champion Belinda Bencic edged past Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in the women’s singles match on Day 1 of the United Cup on Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane to earn Switzerland a 1-0 lead over Kazakhstan in Group B. Bencic came back from a break down early in both sets. This year’s Sofia Open Marc-Andrea Huesler gave Switzerland a 2-0 lead in the men’s singles match.
Putintseva earned an early break in the fourth game of the opening set to take a 4-1 lead. Bencic broke back in the seventh game before saving three set points on her serve to draw level to 5-5. The Swiss player earned three mini-breaks to win the win the tie-break 7-3.
Bencic went down an early break to fall behind 1-3 in the second set, but she fought back by winning five consecutive games including two breaks of serve to seal the second set 6-3.
“I just felt good staying in the match really being positive, even though I felt like Yulia was playing really good, She was hitting the ball faster than normally, like she was going for it more. So I had to be patient until she breaks down”, said Bencic.
Bencic drew level to 3-3 in her six head-to-head matches against Putintseva. The 2022 Billie Jean King Cup champion will face world number 1 Iga Swiatek in her next singles match.
Huesler came back from one set down to beat Timofey Skatov 4-6 6-3 6-3 after 2 hours and 23 minutes. Skatov, who won a Challenger Tour title in Parma this year, earned a break in the fifth game to seal the first set 6-3. Huesler broke in the sixth game of the second set and in the third and ninth games of the third set and saved six of the seven break points he faced.
Huesler, was inside the top 200 this time last year, won his first ATP title at the Sofia Open last October and is now ranked world number 56. Playing captain Stan Wawrinka will take on another plyaing captain Alexander Bublik in the number 1 men’s singles match. On Friday.
