ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – Top-seeded Belinda Bencic won a late-night battle with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to take the final spot in the semifinals at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
Over the course of a two-and-a-half-hour match which concluded after midnight, the Swiss world No. 11 ground down her fifth-seeded Russian opponent to win 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2.
While Bencic’s serving was patchy, she made up for it with tenacity in rallies off her second serve, and was a constant threat in Pavlyuchenkova’s service games, forcing 18 break points, of which 11 were converted.
Bencic’s win sets up a semifinal against a fellow 18-year-old in Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, who overcame the tenacious Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
The other semifinal pits second-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy against Ana Ivanovic, the Serbian fourth seed.