Sawt Falasteen - Bencic surprises herself as Tokyo win brings 10th title

The Swiss beat the Czech Republic's Linda Noskova 6-2, 6-3 in the Pan Pacific Open final, following up her success at the Abu Dhabi Open in February.

Bencic gave birth to a daughter in April last year and returned to the WTA Tour six months later.

The 28-year-old said she did not expect her comeback to "go this fast and this well".

"I'm really enjoying my time back on tour and I think it's showing in the results," she said.

"I couldn't be more happy and I'm definitely surprised. This was definitely not planned."

Bencic was ranked 421 in the world at the start of the season but has climbed to 13 and is projected to rise even higher after her Tokyo win.

It gave her the 10th WTA title of her career and came 10 years after she last appeared in the Pan Pacific final, where she lost to Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska.

Bencic won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021.

She said she was not sure when she launched her comeback if she would be able to return to the upper echelons of tennis.

Her performance at the Australian Open, where she beat former world number one Naomi Osaka on the way to the last 16, convinced her to continue.

"It's hard work but it's a lot of self-belief and a lot of mental belief as well," said Bencic, who reached a career-high ranking of four in February 2020.

"I'm really happy to have this confirmation with myself that I'm able to try to even beat my best ranking from before."

- Magic miso soup -

Bencic, the number five seed, had to work hard for her victory in Tokyo, coming through three-set matches against Karolina Muchova and Sofia Kenin to reach the final.

She said she was "feeling exhausted" after Saturday's semi-final but recovered with some Japanese miso soup and sushi.

"Miso soup, I swear, it's great for recovery," she said.

"It helped me a lot, I felt so much better after."

Bencic was relentless against number six seed Noskova, who was looking for her first title this season and had a much less demanding route to the final.

The 20-year-old won her quarter-final when Anna Kalinskaya retired injured early in the second set and was given a walkover in the semi-final when Elena Rybakina pulled out with a sore back.

Noskova, who squandered 10 break points in the final, said the lack of match practice cost her.

"I definitely didn't have such control over all the points or all of my balls as I did a couple of matches ago," she said.

"I've never gone through a situation where I didn't really play for whole matches before reaching a final."

The tournament was weakened by nine withdrawals before the first round began, including world top 10 players Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula.

H.Jarrar--SF-PST