CHICAGO — Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic overcame 10 double-faults and some first-set frustration to grab 12 of the last 13 games against qualifier Maddison Inglis on Wednesday and reach the third round of the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic.
The third-seeded Bencic got past 130th-ranked Inglis 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 at a hard-court tournament that was added to the WTA schedule after the tour swing in Asia was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bencic next faces Tereza Martincova, who eliminated No. 13 seed and French Open semifinalist Tamara Zidansek 6-2, 7-5.
In other results Wednesday, No. 1 seed Elina Svitolina beat Amanda Anisimova 6-4, 6-3, and No. 5 Elena Rybakina defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 6-4. Seeded winners also included No. 9 Jessica Pegula, No. 12 Veronika Kudermetova and No. 16 Jil Teichmann.
But No. 11 Anett Kontaveit, who was coming off her third career title, a victory Sunday in the Czech Republic, pulled out before her second-round match against qualifier Mai Hontama because of an injured left thigh.
Bencic was a semifinalist at the 2019 U.S. Open and a quarterfinalist there this month, when she lost to eventual champion Emma Raducanu. On Wednesday, Bencic was a point from leading 5-2 and serving for the opening set before Inglis — who was seeking to win consecutive tour-level matches for the first time — reeled off five of six games.
At 5-all, after Bencic argued briefly with the chair umpire about overruling line calls, Ingils took the next point with a net-cord winner. Bencic spun around and threw her racket to the wall behind the baseline.
In the next game, Inglis broke to take the set with the help of a pair of Bencic’s double-faults, including on the last point.
But after making 21 unforced errors in that set, Bencic cleaned up her strokes the rest of the way and took advantage of some shaky serving by Inglis.