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Belinda Bencic was in another fight but suddenly came away with the win at the Mallorca Open Thursd. A shoulder injury forced Shelby Rogers who was doing so well against the third seed to stop play in the deciding set and give the Swiss star a 7-5, 6-3, 3-1 result on Pista Central on the grounds of Santa Ponza Country Club.
Both met for the first time in WTA action making it an uphill battle for the American’s left in the draw. Rogers carried a three-match winning streak going back to qualifications and did well defeating Shuai Zhang in the opening round. Bencic was on point as well but needed more effort to take down Rebecca Peterson. Knowing that a quarterfinal spot was on the line, the Swiss star had to keep her opponent back with an increase of defense.
Bencic didn’t have the best start committing back to back double faults before rallying back to contain the serve. Rogers got on the board with some trouble from her end needing a break on deuce to do it. The world number 13 brushed off the bad start and scored the first two points in the third showing that she was ready to turn up the speed of the rallies. She rewarded herself with the first break of the set before consolidating it with a hold in the fifth for a 4-1 lead.
Rogers got back on track but the margin for Bencic was enough to get into place with a 5-2 hold after seven. Just when it looked as if the Swiss’s focus would get across the line, the voices in the stadium were becoming too much. Bencic failed to get any points during the American’s serve in the eighth and was broken in the next game putting Rogers down a game. Bencic’s frustrations were high but the noise was silent to get regrouped and try to hold off the 26-year-old.
It wasn’t going to happen on Rogers’ end as she secured the hold in the tenth to press the set deep. She added a fourth straight against the Swiss star who was angry at the massive change of scoring that occurred on court despite the improvement of noise. With one last chance to turn things around in the 11th, the 23-year-old saw the American rush to two set points scoring a cross court ace to end the set in 47 minutes. It was her fifth ace of the set and the fifth straight win over Bencic that put Rogers in a good place. Aside from the level of noise from the crowd Roger’s 24 winners helped her dictate while the third seed suffered mentally.
After taking a moment off court, the Swiss star returned to open service in the second set allowing just one point to the 26-year-old. Adding pressure from her anger, Bencic nailed another win for the break keeping ahead of Rogers. It was soon 3-0 for the third seed as she cruised along with the intention of securing the set by any means. Rogers got on the board in the fourth with a double game point winner but trailed three games with the fifth going to Bencic.
A key hold in the seventh gave the Swiss player another 5-2 chance to put the set away. Rogers made sure to hold resulting in the same way as the first set. With the atmosphere around the court working for Bencic, she made good of her serve gaining set points but faltered to force deuce for the American. The third seed caught a break with two straight errors from Rogers to push the two into a decider after 39 minutes. While Rogers recorded double digit winners for the second time, Bencic had improved on lowering the unforced errors and scored more aces.
During the set break, Rogers called out the physio regarding her shoulder and took a medical timeout. Once it was done, she prepared for the opening game serving to Bencic who in the end broke her due to forehand errors. She made up for it breaking back the third seed in the second but was again trounced on serve. Bencic gained the 2-1 lead eyeing to recorded a service hold to increase the margin.
Bencic made it a 3-1 victory on serve but before Rogers could serve for the fifth, she felt that her shoulder injury that was treated during the break became too much and chose to call it quits against the Swiss star ending the day in 1 hour and 47 minutes. The 22-year-old who dealt with plenty of adversity would await the winner and see if she faced French veteran Alize Cornet or take on American Amanda Anisimova in the quarterfinals.
