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Bencic reigns supreme
Simona Halep with Romanian supporters.
The city of Toronto was abuzz with all sorts of sporting activities last weekend. The Blue Jays played host to the New York Yankees. Athletes from the PanAmerican countries were finishing up the ParaPanAm games. For thousands of tennis fans, the Rogers Cup at York University was the key event.
For Canadian fans pulling for Canadian players, the week did not start well. Milos Raonic was eliminated in Montreal, and Eugenie Bouchard was defeated by an up and coming Swiss talent named Belinda Bencic. This was the first time that Bencic had played in Toronto. She is 18 years old.
Following her win over Bouchard, Bencic faced the number four seed Caroline Wozniaki, winning 7-5, 7-5. At this point in the tournament, few people took notice of the young Swiss player. She then faced Sabine Lisicki from Germany. She won the first set 6-1, lost the next 6-1, and emerged victorious in a tie-breaker in the final set. Even at that point in time, Bencic was relatively unnoticed.
The second seed in the tournament, Simona Halep, was winning and had strong fan support from the Romanian contingent. There were upsets, with the number three seed Petra Kvitova losing in the first round. Most tennis fans expected the top seed, Serena Williams, to cruise to the final. Williams did drop a set to Italian Flavia Pennetta in her second round match, but moved on to play Roberta Vinci in the quarter finals. Williams overpowered Vinci with serves in the 200 kilometres per hour range, winning remarkable rallies with great ground strokes.
Following the match, Williams fielded questions from the media. I asked her about the court conditions, as she had slipped on a couple of occasions. She admitted she was concerned about that. “It’s really slippery. I slipped in my first match, and now I slipped today. Yeah, so hopefully I’ll be all right.”
She was asked about playing Bencic in an upcoming match. “She plays to win. She’s really strong mentally. She is the next person that’s going to be the greatest, and she has an opportunity to prove herself.” Williams went into the match with a record of 40 wins, one loss this year. She has pocketed almost $10 million thus far. American funds, thank you.
Williams stormed the court, taking the first set 6-3 against Bencic; however, Bencic clawed her way back into the match with a 7-5 second- set victory. Bencic moved ahead 5-1 in the final set, but Williams came back to make it 5- 3. Williams won the next game and looked as if she would move on. Bencic continued to make the shots, and won the final set 6-4.
In the final on Sunday, Simona Halep squared off against Bencic. Again, the Romanian fans rallied to support her. “Si-mo-na” they screamed, adding comments in their native tongue. It is interesting that no other nationality rallies behind its players more than the Romanians. After her semi-final win, hundreds waited to meet her and get autographs. She certainly captured their hearts.
But the final belonged to Bencic. With neither player comfortable at the net, there were a lot of balls struck in the rallies. Near the end of the first set, Halep took time for medical attention. She was having difficulty with her leg, perhaps due to the intense heat. With Bencic leading in the second set, Halep took another medical break. Before they had finished the third set, Halep withdrew from the match.
Belinda Bencic emerged as the winner of the Rogers Cup. She picked up almost half a million dollars for her efforts. All of the ladies now move on to the US Open, which begins in two weeks. I would not count Serena out of this one.
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