Of the three Swiss women entered in Indian Wells, only one remains. After the entry elimination of Jil Teichmann (WTA 37) on Wednesday, it is the turn of Belinda Bencic (25) to take the door. The St-Galloise, exempted from the first round, lost 6-4 6-3 against Kaia Kanepi (63) in 83 minutes.
Belinda Bencic, who committed 8 unforced errors and conceded her serve 4 times, only won 37% of her points on her 2nd serve. Too little to hope to worry the 36-year-old Estonian, quarter-finalist this year at the Australian Open.
Forfeited in Dubai and beaten to enter Doha, Belinda Bencic is struggling to give her full potential at the start of the year. Struck by the coronavirus in December, she obviously did not find the inspiration and the legs which had led her to the Olympic title last September in Tokyo.
Viktorija Golubic (51) will face around 9:30 p.m. the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva (47) in the 2nd round.
ats/bao
