2nd seed Belinda Bencic locks horns with 8th seed Liudmila Samsonova in the finals of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Open on Sunday. Both players have played quite well throughout the tournament and rightfully deserve to be in the title decider.
The pre-tournament favorite has gone from strength to strength in the tournament. She began the season by playing in the United Cup. Bencic lost to Iga Swiatek after giving the world No. 1 a good run for her money. She defeated Yulia Putintseva in another match. Bencic went on to play in the Adelaide International 2. The Olympic gold medalist played some scintillating tennis throughout the competition and went on to win the title. Bencic defeated the likes of Garbine Muguruza, Anna Kalinskaya, Caroline Garcia, and Daria Kasatkina in the tournament.
Bencic also took part in the Australian Open. She reached the fourth round with wins in straight sets against Viktoriya Tomova, Claire Liu, and Camila Giorgi in straight sets before losing to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka.
After receiving a bye in the round of 32, Bencic squared off against the talented Marta Kostyuk. With the help of a determined performance, Bencic got the better of a determined Kostyuk in two sets. Bencic went on to face American veteran Shelby Rogers in the following round. After winning a competitive first set, Bencic outplayed Rogers in the second set to win the match 7-6 (7-5), 6-2. In the semifinals, Bencic went up against 6th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia. The Brazilian star came into the match with the confidence of having beaten 2023 Australian Open finalist Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals. However, Bencic played an attacking brand of tennis to win the match 6-2, 6-3.
The 24-year-old did not start the season on a great note but has bounced back brilliantly in Abu Dhabi. She began the year by playing in the Adelaide International 1. After getting past the Chinese veteran Zhang Shuai in a tough first-round encounter. However, she went down in the second round to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka.She suffered a second consecutive loss when she was ousted in the first round of the Adelaide International 2 by Amanda Anisimova.
Samsonova got back on track with a comprehensive win in the first round of the Australian Open against Jasmine Paolini. In the following round, the 18th seed was comprehensively beaten by Donna Vekic in straight sets.
Samsonova came back from a set down in the round of 32 against Claire Liu and registered a memorable win. In the round of 16, she defeated veteran Barbora Krejcikova in a riveting two-set thriller. A polished performances helped her outplay 4th seed Veronika Kudermetova in the quarterfinals. Samsonova’s semi-final opponent was the talented Qinwen Zheng. The world No. 19 used her experience and showed great discipline and determination to win the match 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
Liudmila Samsonova and Belinda Bencic have faced each other on three occasions so far. The Russian star has an unblemished head-to-head record of 3-0 as of now. She defeated Samsonova in their most recent encounter in the 2021 Luxembourg Open in straight sets.
Prediction: Belinda Bencic to win in three sets.
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