2nd seed Belinda Bencic takes on 6th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the 2023 Abu Dhabi Open semifinals on Saturday.
Belinda Bencic
The world No. 9 has made it to the semifinals for the second time this season. She is eyeing her 8th WTA title and is a frontrunner to reach the distance.
Bencic received a bye into the second round. Marta Kostyuk faced Bencic in the second round. The talented Ukrainian youngster gave stiff competition but couldn’t take the match into the third set. Benic won two competitive sets 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals. Shelby Rogers fought hard against Bencic in the first set but lost in the tiebreak. The Swiss star dominated the second set and eventually won the match 7-6 (7-5), 6-2. Bencic converted 2 out of 2 break points in the encounter.
Beatriz Haddad Maia
The Brazilian tennis pro has had to fight hard in all three of her matches so far in the Abu Dhabi Open. She has won all of her matches in three sets.
In the round of 32, Beatriz Haddad Maia came back from a set down to defeat Marie Bouzkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. She followed it up with another hard-fought win against Yulia Putintseva. The match ended 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4) in favor of Haddad Maia. She didn’t have a great service game though as she had a win percentage of 59 on the first serve that went down to 17 on the second serve. In the quarterfinals, she faced an in-form Elena Rybakina. The 3rd-seeded Rybakina convincingly won the first set but Haddad Maia turned things around and won the match 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Head-to-Head and Prediction
The head-to-head scoreline currently stands at 1-1. Bencic won in their first meeting at the 2022 Sydney International in straight sets while Haddad Maia defeated her in three sets in Montreal in 2022.
Prediction: Belinda Bencic to win in three sets.
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