The Olympic tennis champion Belinda Bencic was defeated already in the first round of the WTA 1000 Qatar Open with a prize fund of 2.3 million USD. The Swiss player was eliminated by Denmark’s tennis wunderkind Clara Tauson with 2-1 (6:4, 3:6, 6:3) in a match that lasted almost 2 hours.
The first set started equally for both players, winning their serve games. Belinda Bencic even realized the first break in the sixth game to leave by 4:2. However, she failed to defend the break and lost her serving game and this was the turning point in the set, after which Clara Tauson won three more consecutive games to close the set with 6:4.
The 19-years-old Demark’s tennis girl started the second set with a break. However, the next game was at her serving and it started terrible, giving three break points to Belinda Bencic. Despite saving them, the Swiss player succeeded to win the game on the fourth attempt. And this time, maybe the luck was to Belinda Bencic and making this break was a turning point for her. She won the next three games and took a lead of 4:1. The highly experiences Swiss player succeeded to win her serving games by the end of the set and won it by 6:3.
Both players played equally at the beginning of the third set, but Belinda Bencic made a mistake in the fourth game of the set, giving two break points for Clara Tauson and she won the game. By the end of the set, both players won their service games and did not allow the opponent to have a chance for a break. Thus, Clara Tauson closed the set with 6:4 and the match with 2-1.
In the second round, Clara Tauson will face the third-seeded Paula Badosa.
In the other matches, Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea won versus Mayar Sherif by 2-0 (6:2, 6:1), Alison Van Uytvanck defeated Vera Zvonareva by 2-0 (6:4, 6:4), Madison Brengle won versus Ipek Oz by 2-0 (7:5, 6:3), and Ana Konjuh won the match versus Marta Kostyuk with 2-1 (4:6, 7:5, 6:3).
