'Pretty horrible' Bencic to face Kasatkina in St Petersburg semis

'Pretty horrible' Bencic to face Kasatkina in St Petersburg semis

SAINT PETERSBURG - Top seed Belinda Bencic battled from a set down to claim a semi-final spot at the St. Petersburg Open on Friday, beating Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7 (7/4), 6-4, 6-2.

Switzerland's Belinda Bencic celebrates a point during her women's singles match on day seven of the 2016 Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 24, 2016

The 18-year-old Swiss, ranked 11th in the world, won in two hours and 32 minutes to record her second win over Pavlyuchenkova in three meetings.

"Today, probably all the match was pretty horrible," Bencic said.

"I made a lot of mistakes. But I think it's important to fight even through the bad days. It's easy to win when you play perfectly good but it's a much bigger achievement if you win when you're struggling."

After dropping the first set to the world number 26, Bencic, who seeks her third career title and a first appearance in the world top 10, broke twice for a commanding 5-1 advantage in the second set.

In the decider, Bencic was in complete command, breaking her rival's serve twice to take the match.

In Saturday's semi-finals, Bencic will face Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina, who also battled back from a set down to beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 and reach her second semi-final.

"It's the first time in my career that I rallied from behind to win such a prolonged match," Kasatkina said.

"This success really matters for me as I've played just a few WTA matches so far."

Second seed Roberta Vinci of Italy overcame stiff opposition from Timea Babos on her way to the last four with a 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) win.

The 2015 US Open runner-up Vinci experienced problems with her first serve from the start allowing the 22-year-old Babos to break for a comfortable 5-2 lead.

But Vinci, the world number 16, rallied to level at five games all before claiming the opening set in a tiebreak.

In the second, Babos, ranked 51st, broke early to level at one set all after one hour 40 minutes on court.

The Hungarian started the deciding set with an immediate break and was serving for the match but the Italian veteran broke back to level at 5-5.

In a tiebreak that followed Vinci was more focused again winning the match and a place in the semis in two hours 33 minutes.

"It's always tough to face Timea," Vinci said. "I was a bit nervous at the beginning but luckily I managed to take the opening set. It was very hard in the third set when she served for the match but I stayed focused and won a great match."

Vinci will next face former world number one Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, who beat Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Kozlova 6-1, 7-5.

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