(Montreal) When they woke up from their sleep on Friday morning, Liudmila Samsonova and Belinda Bencic had every right to expect a long and hard day, which would benefit only one of them. The big winner will have been Samsonova.
After spending nearly three hours on center court at IGA Stadium in her afternoon round of 16 match, the 24-year-old Russian took another step forward at the National Bank Tennis Open following her victory in two sets of 6-4, 6-4 against the Swiss Belinda Bencic.
The duel, which ended shortly after 11 p.m., lasted 1 hour 49 minutes and was hotly contested.
It comes down to the two breaks of service that Samsonova went for, the first in the seventh game of the opening set and the second in the ninth game of the second set, when Bencic committed his fourth double fault of the match.
Trailing 5-4 in the second set, Bencic tried hard to prevent her opponent from ending the duel, even taking a 30-15 lead on Samsonova’s serve.
The latter responded by earning the next three points, the last when Bencic returned a powerful serve from Samsonova into the net.
In Saturday night’s semi-final, Samsonova will face Elena Rybakina, who won a 3:27 marathon duel against Daria Kasatkina 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (8).
A few hundred spectators, amazed and conquered by the effort and the spectacle offered by the two athletes, were still in the stands at the time of the final point, achieved at 2:53 am on Saturday morning.
One could wonder in what physical condition Samsonova and Bencic were going to present themselves in the evening, after having both fought long and hard battles a few hours earlier.
The match between Bencic and Petra Kvitova, won by the Swiss 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-1, lasted two hours 57 minutes and was particularly physically taxing for both players.
Early in the third set, while leading 1-0 and 30-15 on serve, Bencic fell to the ground after twisting her left ankle near the baseline.
In an admirable sporting gesture, Kvitova walked over to her side and accompanied her to her bench. Then she crouched down and stayed close to her for several minutes to console her, waiting for the physiotherapist to arrive.
Back on the court, Bencic won two of the next three points, and the game. Herself diminished by discomfort in her right hip later in the set, Kvitova never recovered.