By Chris Oddo | Saturday August 15, 2015
Belinda Bencic became the youngest person to defeat Serena Williams in over ten years with a three-set upset in the Rogers Cup semis on Saturday in Toronto.
Photo Source: Vaughn Ridley/Getty
An overwhelmed Belinda Bencic barely knew which direction to walk—let alone what to say—after she struck a forehand winner to complete her 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 stunner over Serena Williams at the Rogers Cup on Saturday in Toronto.
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“I cannot believe it now,” she told the crowd. “I’m so happy I closed it out. It’s amazing.”
Williams, who had roared through the opener with her 14-match winning streak in Toronto intact, found herself in the thick of a battle in the second set as Bencic started to handle the Williams pace and fire a few salvos of her own.
“The first set was just too fast for me but then I adapted to the game very good in the second,” Bencic later said.
The World No. 20, just two years old when Williams won her first major title in 1999, saved three break points to hold for 1-0 in the opening game of set two, and that was just the beginning. She would steal the crowd’s affection after a brilliant display of reflexes won her a cat-and-mouse point at 2-all and a few games later she would take a 5-3 lead when she hammered a forehand winner to break.
Williams responded, breaking back in the next game, but Bencic battled back from 0-40 down at 5-all to hold, sending another message to Williams.
In the next game she broke when Williams double-faulted on set point.
In danger of blowing leads of 4-0 and 5-1 in set three, Bencic pulled through with a clutch break of serve to nab the upset and hand Williams her second loss of the season.
It was a valiant show of opportunistic tennis—something that so many have been unable to produce while in similar situations against one of the greatest comeback artists and fighters of all-time.
On a night where Williams was far from her best in the final two sets, Bencic still had her hands full with the World No. 1’s power and aura. But the sword was double-edged as a coming-of-age Bencic put the screws to Williams as much as Williams did to her. The rising Swiss proved to be deceptive throughout the match, never allowing Williams to guess on the direction of her attack. Bencic was also resilient, saving 14 break points including four of five in a pivotal second set that very easily could have gone the other way.
Meanwhile, Williams helped Bencic’s cause by throwing in 12 double-faults and producing more errors as the match progressed. The 21-time major champion finished with 59 unforced errors, and her 18 of 55 second-serve points won and total of 19 break points faced (eyebrow-raising numbers for anybody but for Serena?) caused many to speculate that her elbow may indeed still be hampering her serve.
“Serena’s serve has never looked so out of sync to me,” said Pam Shriver while commentating for ESPN. “She served below 40 percent first serves in winning the first set. And then in the third set she couldn’t hold serve until she was down 5-1. She was hardly winning points on her serve.”
She added: “The worry to me is the serve, and the elbow injury. What is going on? Maybe she hasn’t had enough reps. I haven’t seen Serena serve like that in years.”
Despite the difficulties, Williams was able to rally from 5-1 down to get to 5-4 in the decider, but in the final game Bencic seized the play with perfect shotmaking to become the youngest player to defeat Williams in a completed match since Maria Sharapova’s last win over Williams in 2004.
The 18-year-old will battle with Simona Halep on Sunday for the title. The pair have met once at the Tour-level. Halep won that battle in straight sets at Wimbledon in 2014.