Bencic comes back from the brink to beat Cirstea and reach US Open third round
Olympic champion Belinda Bencic came from a set and 5-3 down to beat Sorana Cirstea 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. She’ll play either Karolina Pliskova or Marie Bouzkova in round three
Swiss Belinda Bencic, the No 13 seed, rescued herself from the brink of defeat as she came from a set and 5-3 down to beat Romanian Sorana Cirstea 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the second round of the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Thursday.
World No 37 Cirstea served for the match at 6-3, 5-3 only for Bencic, the Olympic champion, to win the next four games to level, before pulling away in the decider.
Bencic, ranked No 13, will face the winner of the match between former runner-up Karolina Pliskova and her fellow Czech Marie Bouzkova. The Swiss, a semi-finalist in New York in 2019, edged out the now retired German Andrea Petkovic (6-2, 4-6, 6-4) in the previous round of the Flushing Meadows.
Cirstea had defeated German Laura Siegemund 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.
US Open, New York City (Grand Slam), other second-round results
- Iga Swiatek (1) beat Sloane Stephens: 6-3, 6-2
- Yulia Putintseva vs. Jule Niemeier: thursday
- Jessica Pegula (8) beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich: 6-4, 6-4
- Victoria Azarenka (26) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-2, 6-3
- Lauren Davis beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (28): 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5)
- Bianca Andreescu beat Beatriz Haddad Maia (15): 6-2, 6-4
- Liudmila Samsonova beat Leylah Fernandez (14): 6-3, 7-6 (3)
- Aleksandra Krunic beat Barbora Krejcikova (23): 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
- Serena Williams beat Anett Kontaveit (2): 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2
- Ajla Tomljanovic beat Evgeniya Rodina: 1-6, 6-2, 7-5
- Caroline Garcia (17) beat Anna Kalinskaya: 6-3, 6-1
- Coco Gauff (12) beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse: 6-2, 7-6 (4)
- Dalma Galfi beat Harriet Dart: 6-4, 6-0
- Veronika Kudermetova (18) beat Maryna Zanevska: 6-2, 6-3
- Rebecca Marino beat Daria Snigur (Q): 6-3, 7-6 (5)
- Madison Keys (20) beat Camila Giorgi: 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (6)
- Shuai Zhang beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova: 7-5, 6-1
- Alison Riske-Amritraj (29) beat Camila Osorio: 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5)
- Ons Jabeur (5) beat Elizabeth Mandlik (WC): 7-5, 6-2
- Xiyu Wang beat Maria Sakkari (3): 3-6, 7-5, 7-5
- Shelby Rogers (31) beat Viktoria Kuzmova (Q): 7-5, 6-1