I should be asleep right now but I felt compelled to write a few words! Belinda Bencic produced her best performance of 2015 by a country mile to beat Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4 6-4 to book her place in the last 16 at Indian Wells. Everything came together today for Belinda as she sealed just her third WTA main draw win of 2015. Bencic was both tenative and accurate in the first set as she worked her way into the match. It was the right tactic as she got a feel for the match and took advantage of some uncharacteristic errors from Wozniacki. Bencic lost her early break, but rebroke at 4-4. On the first point serving at *5-4, Bencic had too much to think and pushed a straighforward putaway long. She didn’t let that deter her as she sealed the first set, holding to 30.
This wasn’t a great display from Wozniacki. She made a lot of errors and was really struggling on her second serve, which is normally decent. Wozniacki hit eight double faults throughout the match and nearly blew a couple of leads in her service games from *40-0 up in the second set. She did improve as the second set wore on, which turned out to be a very entertaining set of tennis. Bencic stayed with Wozniacki and started to go for more and more shots as her confidence grew. There were a couple of smashing winners… the screaming pass down-the-line certainly woke me up!
Bencic broke serve again at 4-4 and served it out in style. It was lovely to see Belinda with a smile on her face at the end. It’s been a slow start to the year, but she held her nerve and crucially, didn’t get frustrated or down on herself. It was a very mature performance and although I didn’t see this result coming at all (see my preview here) I knew she would come good at some point this year! Another heads up for Andrew in the comments section who backed Bencic … mannn, you are killing the predictions this week! I thought Wozniacki might be in for a good run here after getting five matches in Kuala Lumpur, but it was not to be. The break and chance to refresh could be valuable for her ahead of Miami where i’d fancy her to do much better, depending on the draw.
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Shall I say I told you so or sing it? 😛
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You sang it for Bencic. I was there to watch the first set and left after Woz lost 6-4. She looked like not in her mood to play. Frankly speaking, I still don’t think Bencic will make it big in the women games. She is probably a replacement of Woz in the future. Playing some good tennis but not good enough to win Slam.
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It was a ‘give it 75% not bothered if I lose’ effort from Woz, a relaxing week preparing in Miami must be quite appealing to many players.
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