There was to be no final fling for Watson
British No. 2 Heather Watson yesterday missed out on a place in today’s final at the Viking Classic in Birmingham as she was beaten in straight sets by second seed Ons Jabeur.
Watson was forced to play twice in one day after rain on Friday saw her quarterfinal against third seed Donna Vekic carried into the weekend.
She impressed in her first outing as she prevailed 6-4 6-2 against the Croatian to become the first home semi-finalist of the event since Jo Durie in 1992.
But that was as far as she went as Tunisia’s Jabeur, the world No. 24, won their last-four encounter 6-3 6-3 in 72 minutes.
Jabeur had beaten Russia’s Anastasia Potapova 6-4 6-0 in her quarter-final earlier in the day and will face Russian Daria Kasatkina in the final after the second seed outclassed American Coco Vandeweghe 6-2 6-4.
Meanwhile, Swiss No. 5 seed Belinda Bencic yesterday booked a spot in her second final of the season at the inaugural bett1open, after moving past Alizé Cornet of France, 7-5, 6-4, in their Berlin semi-final clash.
World No. 12 Bencic improved to 3-1 against Cornet after her one-hour and 47-minute victory placed her into the fourth grass-court final of her career.
A bevy of deft play by both resulted in the first break of the day going to Bencic, as she broke for 3-2 with a winning pass. Cornet would rebound on return, breaking back for 4-4, but Bencic reclaimed her advantage by edging ahead 6-5 and clinching a chance to serve for the set.
That game would be a true tussle, as Bencic had to withstand four break points before advancing to her first set point. Cornet then fended off three set points before missing a return long to hand Bencic a fourth chance to close out the set. After a nearly 15-minute game, Bencic finally wrapped up the set with an error-forcing forehand.
A love break by Bencic in the first game of the second set was echoed by Cornet further down the road, when the Frenchwoman eventually broke back at love for 4-4.
But Cornet dropped serve in the very next game with three double faults, ceding a 5-4 advantage to the Swiss. Bencic made no mistake serving out the match at love to charge into another final.
Bencic will face qualifier Liudmila Samsonova in today’s final after she saw off No. 7 seed Victoria Azarenka 6-4 6-2.