Bencic Denied Angers Trophy By Inspired Parks After Miraculous Week
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Belinda Bencic enjoyed a fantastic week of tennis in Angers, but she couldn't end it with the trophy in her hands.
Trying to get back to her best after giving birth to her daughter, Bencic chose to compete at lower-tier WTA events at the end of the 2024 season to get back into the rhythm and find her best tennis again before the 2025 season kicks off in Australia.
She made her comeback in Hamburg, Germany, where she won her first match before losing in the second one, but already her second event was more successful, as she won two matches in Petange, Luxembourg, before withdrawing from the tournament.
The Swiss player then helped her country to beat Serbia in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, and she also signed up for the WTA 125K tournament in Angers, France, called the Open In Arte Angers Loire.
In the first round of the tournament, she bested Patricia Maria Tig, 6-4, 6-1, before thrashing Mariam Bolkvadze, 6-1, 6-1. She then recorded another incredibly dominant win against Oceane Dodin, winning 6-3, 6-1.
Bencic didn't stop her dominant journey in the semi-finals either, as she bested Dominika Salkova, 6-1, 6-2, to set up a final meeting with the third-seeded Alycia Parks, who loves these indoor hard-court tournaments, which she demonstrated by reaching the semi-final in Trnava, Slovakia, the previous week.
Funnily enough, that's part of the world that her final opponent in Angers, Bencic, likely also visited, as the Swiss player has Slovak roots, and her partner and father of her daughter is also Slovak.
At the start of their match in Angers, Bencic had a better start, even though Parks led 40-0 on her serve in the first game of the match. Still, the Swiss player was able to make up that deficit, breaking in the first game to lead early in the match.
In the sixth game, leading 3-2, Bencic had to save a total of six break points, but incredibly, she saved every single one of them. Still, she couldn't avoid being broken before the first set ended.
Parks broke the Swiss player's serve when she was serving for the set, taking the set into the tie-break. In the tie-break, Parks, who has the better serve of the two, was also the better player, winning it 7-4 to take the first set.
Bencic started the second set by breaking her opponent's serve again, but this time, she managed to avoid getting broken. That, however, didn't mean that she didn't have to face break points, as the American player had a total of four break points in the second set.
All of those remained unused, and Bencic won the second set 6-3 to force the decider. Unfortunately for her, her opponent turned into a wall in the third set of the match.
Parks was serving incredibly, losing only two points on her serve in the entirety of the. On top of that, the American player broke her opponent's serve every single time to end the final in Angers with a bagel, winning the match 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-0.
Despite losing in the final, Bencic will be certainly delighted with this result, as she will move up by 432 positions in the WTA Rankings thanks to earning 81 points.
