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Teenager Bencic upsets Ivanovic, to face Serena in Rogers Cup semis

Xinhua, August 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

The 18-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland beat the fifth seed Ana Ivanovic in straight sets (6-4, 6-2) at Rogers Cup quarterfinals to continue her rise in the WTA rankings.

The Friday's victory was the teenager's fourth of the season against a top-10 ranked player. She previously beat world No. 5 ranked Caroline Wozanaki twice and No. 7 Agnieszka Radwanska.

"I felt amazing on the court, like everything worked," said Bench following the victory in Toronto. "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 ITF Junior World Champion two years ago, Bencic has shot up the WTA rankings. In 2014, she started the year ranked 186 before finishing No. 33.

In 2015, Bencic captured her first 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 in straight sets (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 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 WTA victory.

Halep will face No. 15 seed Sara Errani of Italy, who beat Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) in the other semifinal match, tomorrow.

Meanwhile in doubles action, former singles No. 1 Martina Hingis and her partner Sonia Mirza of India advanced to the semis with a victory over the Chinese Taipei sisters, Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan.

Hingis and Mirza will face the No. 4 seeded pair of Caroline Garcia of France and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

The other doubles match will feature Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic taking on Kristina Miladenovic of France and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Enditem