No. 1 seed Ons Jabeur and No. 8 seed Belinda Bencic have advanced to the final in Berlin.
Bencic had the longer of the two semifinals, downing No. 2 seed Maria Sakkari 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 in a thrilling three-hour affair to clinch a spot in the bett1open final for the second consecutive season.
“We both kind of pushed really hard, we both didn’t give each other anything. I think it was high quality, of course, we held our serves as much as we could, and I really felt like we put on a show there,” Bencic said after Saturday’s match.
Leaving it ALL out on the court 💜A high quality encounter goes the way of 🇨🇭 @BelindaBencic who will now vie for her 2nd grass court title 🏆#bett1open pic.twitter.com/9q7gpjkGka— wta (@WTA) June 18, 2022
Leaving it ALL out on the court 💜A high quality encounter goes the way of 🇨🇭 @BelindaBencic who will now vie for her 2nd grass court title 🏆#bett1open pic.twitter.com/9q7gpjkGka
Bencic will face Jabeur in her fifth career grass-court final after the Tunisian star took out No. 7 seed Coco Gauff in Saturday’s second semifinal. Jabeur cruised past Gauff in straight sets, winning the opponents’ first grass-court meeting.
Winning two of their three meetings, Bencic holds the advantage in the head-to-head with Jabeur, however, the 27-year-old won their most recent contest in Madrid.
Both players will be looking for their second career singles final in Sunday’s championship match.