Toronto, Aug 15 (IANS) The 18-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland beat fifth seed Ana Ivanovic in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 at Rogers Cup tennis tournament’s quarter-finals to continue her rise.
Friday’s victory was the teenager’s fourth of the season against a top-10 ranked player. She has previously beaten World No.5 Caroline Wozanaki twice and No.7 Agnieszka Radwanska.
“I felt amazing on the court, like everything worked,” said Bench following the victory in Toronto on Friday.
“I was just in kind of a flow… I didn’t think about the score. I think it was just perfect today.”
Since being named the 2013 Junior World Champion two years ago, Bencic has shot up the women’s singles rankings. In 2014, she started the year ranked 186 before finishing No. 33.
In 2015, Bencic captured her first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) title in Eastbourne in June and is currently ranked No.20 in the world.
Bencic will face one of the toughest challenges of her career Saturday against world No.1 Serena Williams in the semi-finals.
“Tomorrow I’m just going to enjoy the match. I have nothing to lose, so I can totally like go on the court and be just so relaxed,” said Bencic.
“I hope I will play like today.”
Williams defeated Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3 to extend her undefeated streak in Toronto to fourteen matches and is vying for her fourth Rogers Cup title.
On the other side of the draw, No.2 seed Simona Halep of Romania advanced to the semi-finals by defeating defending champion and No.6 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in three sets.
Despite losing the first set 0-6, Halep managed to win the subsequent sets 6-3, 6-1 to claim what was also her 300th career victory.
Halep will face No.15 seed Sara Errani of Italy, who beat Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-4 in the other semi-final match.