Swiss wild-card took out World No 2 Naomi Osaka on Thursday and followed her win with another upset of compatriot Belinda Bencic, the 10th seed at the Western & Southern Open on Friday, while her opponent in the semi-finals, 5th-seeded seed Karolina Pliskova, advanced after Spain’s Paula Badosa retired from their match due to a right shoulder injury.
I felt good since the beginning. I served well...the short balls, I went in. I was defending well. I was moving good. I think everything kind of worked out for me today. Jil Teichmann
Teichmann triumphed in the all-Swiss quarter-final got past Bencic, the Olympic gold medalist ,6-3 6-2, to claim a spot in the final 4 in Cincinnati.
“We hugged before the match; we hugged after the match,” Teichmann said about her compatriot and friend. “We know that once we step on court it’s business, it’s just another player I have to deal with, and she had the same mindset.
“At the beginning it’s obviously a bit special, but once we’re in it, we just look at the game, not looking at the opponent, or at least I do that way.”
The World No 76 Teichmann needed just 71 minutes to knock out her higher-ranked countrywoman, ending Bencic’s 9-match winning streak, which crested with a victory over Marketa Vondrousova in the Olympics final.
“I felt good since the beginning,” Teichmann told the media after her win. “I served well…the short balls, I went in. I was defending well. I was moving good. I think everything kind of worked out for me today.”
The victory continues a fine week for Teichmann, who earned her career-best win by way of ranking when she eliminated Osaka in the round of 16.
Twice a WTA singles champion on clay courts in 2019, at Prague and Palermo, Teichmann has now replicated the hard-court success she had earlier in 2021 before her season was derailed by left leg injuries.
In the first quarter of this year, she reached the quarter-finals at the Phillip Island Trophy, the semi-finals in Adelaide, and the semi-finals in Dubai in successive hard-court tournaments.
This week is the first time since Dubai that Teichmann has notched consecutive wins on tour.
Belinda Bencic found herself at a loss against fellow Swiss Jil Teichmann on Friday in Cincinnati
Against Bencic, she was pristine and powerful on serve, turning around 0-40 in her very first service game to win 84 percent of her first-service points and saving all 5 of the break points she faced in the process.
It simply wasn’t Bencic’s day on Friday, the World No 1 coughing up 4 double-faults, while Teichmann was sensational, notably kicking it to another gear by breaking Bencic in the first game of the second set and cruising to victory from there.
Teichmann, who out-winnered Bencic by 23 to 9, is the lowest-ranked Western & Southern Open semi-finalist since World No 151 Sloane Stephens in 2017, and is bidding to become the 4th straight unseeded finalist at the event.
Next up for Teichmann is a semi-final clash with Pliskova in the first meeting between the two.
Karolina Pliskova took a tight first set against Paula Badosa before the Spaniard retired
Pliskova, this year’s Wimbledon runner-up, moved into the semi-finals after Paula Badosa of Spain retired from their match due to a right shoulder injury while the Czech was leading 7-5, 2-0.
The former World No 1 won the Cincinnati title in 2016, and is now in the semi-finals of the Western & Southern Open for the 3rd time in her career.
In her previous match, Pliskova beat her 2021 nemesis, Jessica Pegula, for the first time in 5 tries, but she had to come back from dire deficits in each set to do so, from 1-4 down in the first set, and 0-5 down in the second set.
Pliskova faced a similar scenario against Badosa, the World No 29, as the Spaniard drew errors from the Czech to post a 4-0 advantage.
Badosa had 4 chances to break again and lead 5-0, but Pliskova gritted through that game to get on the scoreboard, and suddenly, the match turned.
Pliskova picked off 5 straight games from there to lead 5-4, and after Badosa stopped that run to hold for 5-5, the rising Spaniard called for the trainer to have her shoulder looked at.
After a medical time-out at 6-5, Badosa dropped her serve to love to cede the one-set lead to Pliskova, and could only make it through 2 games in the second set before she deemed herself unable to continue.
Paula Badosa retired with a shoulder injury in the second set against Karolina Pliskova on Friday
Earlier in the day, in a clash between the last two Grand Slam champions, top seed Ash Barty cruised into the semi-finals with a convincing win over another Czech, Barbora Krejcikova, 6-2 6-4, in an hour 11 minutes.
It took around the same time for Angelique Kerber to become Barty’s next opponent after the German advanced when a 3rd Czech, Petra Kvitova, the No 11 seed, retired with a stomach issue with the score standing at 6-4, 3-3, in the German’s favour.
Despite her illness, Kvitova fired 7 aces and hung tough in the first set before Kerber broke her to go up 5-4 and held serve to win the set, before the two battled to 3-all tie in the second.
In the doubles, the 2019 Australian Open champions, China’s Zhang Shuai & Samantha Stosur from Australia, came back from a set down and trailing 5-1 in the second to reach the final, winning two matches on Friday to face Canada’s Gaby Dabrowski Luisa Stefani of Brazil.
The pair were facing defeat to Russia’s Anna Blinkova & Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, who had several chances to serve for the match, before an epic come-back to seal the second set 7-5 by winning 6 games in a row.
“That’s not the first time we’ve been 1-5 down and won the match,” Zhang told the media after the match. “We just tried to focus on ourselves and be patient.”
Zhang & Stosur then took the decisive 3rd and final set tiebreak, 10-5, to seal a place in the WTA 1000 final and end a hard day’s work.
The semi-final was their second match of the day after playing the quarter-final against 4th seeds Nicole Melichar & Demi Schuurs.
That match also went to 3 sets with Zhang, 32, and Stosur, 37, winning 6-3 3-6 [10-6].
They now face the 6th seeds Dabrowski & Stefani in the final on Saturday.
Zhang & Stosur won the women’s doubles at the 2019 Australian Open but have not won a doubles title since, either together or with other partners.
The Chinese singles No 2 has reached 4 doubles semi-finals this season, but Cincinnati marks the first final. Zhang has also lost her last three WTA 1000 doubles finals.
Stosur & Zhang reached the semi-finals of the 2018 US Open.
Sam Stosur & Shuai Zhang have reached the Western & Southern Open doubles final
Further Reading
Australian Open | Can Barty fulfil her promise?
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Australian Open | TA cleans up its act
Tennis Australia is working on brushing up its environmental image by announcing this week that it has teamed up with a game-changing Australian enviro-tech startup to reduce plastic bottle waste at the Australian Open, and ending its controversial partnership with...
Australian Open | Hewett beaten in final
Alfie Hewett’s bid to complete this year’s Australian Open as men’s singles and men’s doubles champion ended in a gallant three-set loss on Thursday as world No.1 Shingo Kunieda of Japan regained the title after a 7-5 3-6 6-2 win
Tokyo | Nishikori undergoes hip surgery
Kei Nishikori underwent arthroscopic left hip surgery on Tuesday, which will keep him off the men’s tour for about six months.
Australian Open | Brilliant Barty to meet Collins in AO final
If Ash Barty feared Madison Keys so close to reaching her goal, there was no sign of it at the Australian Open on Thursday evening, when the World No 1 powered past the American, 6-1 6-3, to arrive at her pre-ordained place in the final, the first Aussie to do so...
