Second Berlin final in a row for Bencic after thrilling battle with Sakkari

Swiss Belinda Bencic, the No 8 seed, moved into the final of the Berlin Open by edging out Greek Maria Sakkari, the second seed, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4 at Rot-Weiss Tennis Club on Saturday in a match that lasted three hours and seven minutes.

She also reached the final of the event last year losing to Ludmilla Samsonova 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Bencic, aged 25, reflected on the closeness of the encounter with Sakkari in her on-court interview afterwards, saying: “It was such an even match. We really gave it our all. I think we played all our games very long and fought our best.”

And when asked about the first-set tiebreak, when she failed to take her chances, she credited her opponent.

“Maria played really well, she’s a top player, she knows how to go deep in the week – she didn’t give me anything,” she said.

Bencic, ranked No 17, will face the winner of the match between Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the top seed, and American Coco Gauff, the No 7 seed, next.

In the previous rounds, the Swiss won against German wildcard Jule Niemeier (6-4, 5-7, 6-3), Russian wildcard Anna Kalinskaya (6-4, 1-6, 6-1) and Russian Veronika Kudermetova (3-6, 6-3, 6-3).

Sakkari, ranked No 6, beat Frenchwoman qualifier Leolia Jeanjean (6-3, 6-2), Australian qualifier Daria Saville (6-1, 7-5) and Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No 6 seed (6-0, 6-3) earlier in the tournament.

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Tennis Majors