Belinda Bencic and Marta Kostyuk secured the second longest match of the 2023 season on the WTA circuit, and the athlete from Switzerland reached the 1/8 finals of the tournament in Dubai.

Belinda BencicPhoto: Aaron Favila/AP/Profimedia

Belinda Bencic defeated Marta Kostiuk at the WTA in Dubai

The eighth favorite of the “WTA 1000” competition, Bencic won after three hours and 27 minutes of play over a player from Ukraine (55 WTA), score (7) 6-7, 7-6(5), 6-4.

Belinda led in a set and a break, but made an impressive comeback to win the second set on a tie-break and better control her emotions in the deciding set, in which she was down twice but won three times after coming back.

Know:

  • The Olympic champion from Tokyo will fight for a place in the quarters with Karolina Mukhova (112 WTA), who defeated Sorana Kirstea (70 WTA).
  • Only Soran Kirstea-Beatrice Haddad Maia (first round in Dubai) was longer than Bencic-Kostiuk this year: three hours and 29 minutes.
  • In the women’s singles main draw, Romania is represented by only Ana Bohdan so far. Iryna Begu was defeated in the first round, and Sorana Kirstya lost on Tuesday, in the second round.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships runs from February 19 to 25 on hard, is part of the “WTA 1000” category and has a total prize pool of $2,788,468. Simona Halep won the tournament in 2015 and 2020, and the last edition went to Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

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