Bencic won all four of her singles matches and four in mixed doubles in the team event this week. Paul, who won just six doubles matches at tour level last year, hit several down-the-line winners at crucial moments to lead Switzerland to Sunday’s final against Poland, which defeated defending champions United States in the other semi-final on Saturday.
“He’s so brave, it’s unbelievable,” Bencic said of Paul. ‘I tell him he has to go [for it]and he actually goes. It’s crazy.”
Bencic extended her run of unbeaten season-opening singles matches as she defeated Mertens 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (0) to give Switzerland a 1-0 lead. But Stan Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of the season, was beaten 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 by Bergs to send the match to a mixed doubles decider at the Ken Rosewall Arena.
The turning point in the Wawrinka-Bergs match came in the eighth game of the third set when Bergs broke Wawrinka’s serve to go up 5–3 and then held serve to win the match.
Tournament organizers started play 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, with scorching temperatures of up to 109 Fahrenheit in the forecast for Sydney.
Bencic had won all six sets in her first three matches at the United Cup. She was two games away from another two-set win before Mertens pushed the match to the limit.
Then Mertens came from 3-1 down in the third set, saved a pair of break points that could have given Bencic a 4-1 lead and was two points away from victory, with Bencic serving at 30-30, trailing 6-5.
But Bencic won the final nine points of the match after a decision to replace her racket with a freshly strung one, taking the match to 2 hours and 37 minutes.
“It feels like 170 kilos have been lifted off my shoulders; I was so stressed. I really wanted to do well and today I felt so much pressure not to let my team down,” Bencic said.
About switching rackets, she said: “My brain switched off and let my instincts take over. I think it was just a feeling.”
#Bencic #leads #Switzerland #United #Cup #final