By Chris Oddo | Saturday, June 27, 2015
Belinda Bencic captured her maiden title on Saturday, surging past Agnieszka Radwanska in three sets.
Photo Source: Christopher Levy
Belinda Bencic capped off a fantastic run of Wimbledon tune-ups with a bold statement at the Aegon International. The 18-year-old took down former champion Agnieszka Radwanska in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, to claim her first career title and improve her record on grass in 2015 to an impressive 11-2.
At 18 years and 109 days old, Bencic becomes the youngest player to earn a Premier-level title since Caroline Wozniacki took New Haven in 2008 at 18 years and 43 days.
Bencic broke after a 7-minute game to take a 5-4 lead in the opener and served the set out, finishing it off with a crosscourt backhand that was too hot to handle for Radwanska.
The world No. 31 then rallied from 3-0 down to level in the second set, but Radwanska stemmed her momentum with a break to lead 5-4 before serving the set out to level.
But the third set was all Bencic.
"Of course I was disappointed I didn't close out the second set, and I was also starting to get a little tired—it was a lot of running out there, and we had some long rallies out there too,” Bencic said. “But I was very focused in the third set, and after 3-0 I relaxed a little bit and closed it out well."
The Swiss closed the 24-minute decider by ripping a clean forehand winner before enjoying a well-deserved victory celebration.
Bencic improves to 1-2 in career finals and will head to Wimbledon where she will face former semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round.
"Tomorrow I'm just going to try to recover and practice a little bit, and then I just really need to focus on my first round. It's definitely not going to be an easy match,” she said.
Radwanska was bidding for her 15th career title in 22 career finals. The world No. 13 is still without a title in 2015.