After Swiss teen sensation Belinda Bencic found herself in a sticky situation against Tsvetana Pironkova in the first round, she once again had to battle out of trouble in her second round match against Anna-Lena Friedsam. The 21-year-old German gave French Open champion Serena Williams a scare in the second round at Roland Garros and was looking to make the same kind of impact on the Eastbourne champion.
Both women were strong when finding their serves in the opening set as they both won over 70 percent of those points. Like against Serena, the German came out in the opening set showing no fear from the back of the court as she hit seven winners from the baseline with nearly an even split amongst the forehand and backhand side. Despite that, it was Bencic who took advantage on the German's serve when it mattered the most.
The Swiss managed to fare slightly better than the German in the opening set on return points won which allowed Bencic more opportunities to break serve. She only saw one more chance to break compared to her opponent but converted on two of those chances compared to the one of the German as she took the opening set 7-5.
The second set may have been a 6-4 scoreline in favor of Friedsam, but the stats clearly favored her. The German found her flat first serve in this set which troubled Bencic on the return. She hit 71 percent of first serves in and also won 71 percent of those points, a formula to winning most sets. If that wasn't trouble for Bencic then the fact that Friedsam once again dominated the baseline with nine winners from the back of the court. All of a sudden, Bencic once again found herself in a third set, but this time her opponent was the one who had to extend the match.
All of the fantastic tennis the German played in the second set suddenly had disappeared in the decider. Her serve was not just gone, but her groundstrokes let her down as well. She did not hit a signal winner on a groundstroke in the final set while Bencic dominated on her serve, and the Friedsam second serve. The Swiss served up a nice bagel to the German as she tasted something other than the famous strawberries and cream at the All England Club. Belinda Bencic now faces off against American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands for a spot in the second week.