Belinda Bencic defeated Sesil Karatantcheva 6-1, 6-2 in 57 minutes to advance to the second round of the 2015 U.S. Open. Bencic will play Misaki Doi next.

Dominant First Set From Bencic

Bencic began the match with a routine service hold and quickly had two chances to go up an early break. It was clear from the opening stages of this encounter that Karatantcheva was trying to hit through Bencic, and it wasn’t working.

Belinda absorbs pace so well that if you give her pace, she will give it right back to you. Because of this, Bencic was able to get a lot of balls back to force an error off of the racquet of Karatantcheva as she broke for a 2-0 lead. In the next game, the 18-year old had to save a break point, but like she did in Toronto earlier this month, she was able to play some of her best tennis under pressure.

In the end, it was the former junior world number one who consolidated the early break. Karatantcheva did well to get on the board in her next service game though, thanks to some loose unforced errors off of Bencic’s forehand.

Now up 3-1, the Swiss number one was looking to continue her dominance in the opening set. With some ground strokes and serves that were measured to perfection, she did just that by holding serve to go up 4-1.

4-1 quickly became 5-1 for Bencic as lots of errors were springing off of Karatantcheva’s racquet. Now serving for the set, the reigning champion of the Rogers Cup came back from 0-30 down, forcing her Bulgarian counterpart to scramble all over the court to return her shots. In 23 minutes, the opening set belonged to Belinda Bencic by six games to two.

A statistic from that first set that really stuck out was the fact that despite both women having a decent first serve percentage (Bencic with 78% and Karatantcheva with 67%), Bencic was able to win 72 percent of points behind her first serve and 80 percent behind her second (the only point she lost on her second serve was on a double fault).

Karatantcheva only won 42 percent of first serve points and 33 percent of her second serve points. That says a lot because Bencic does not have a huge serve, but when it’s used effectively, it can really do some damage.

More of the Same From Bencic in the Second Set

Bencic began the second set with another break of serve thanks to a double fault from Karatantcheva. It looked like everything was going wrong for the Bulgarian number two in this match. However, there were some things for the Bulgarians to cheer about as Karatantcheva began to play a little more aggressive, and as a result, she broke straight back.

In the next game, Sesil came from 0-40 down to push the game to deuce and both players had their chances to win the game. It wasn’t a pretty game by any standards as both players hit many errors, but in the end, Bencic was just a little more consistent than Karatantcheva. Breaking once more, Belinda was back in the driver’s seat.

Continuing to use the Bulgarian’s pace, Bencic was able to counter everything Karatantcheva threw at her. This helped her open up a sizeable 3-1 lead. The Swiss had two chances to break in the next game but the world number 106 refused to give up. Not only did Karatantcheva save those two break points, she managed to be more consistent, triggering rare errors off of the racquet of Bencic.

Now up 3-2, the world number 12 was able to play to her strengths. By redirecting pace and going for winners when she had an opportunity, Belinda was able to hold for a 4-2 lead. Karatantcheva’s woes on serve soon returned to the Bulgarian as she was broken to love.

Bencic would now serve for the match, up 5-2. Looking dejected, Sesil was frustrated that she couldn’t be aggressive enough, but in all honesty, Belinda wasn’t letting her get on the front foot very often. Bencic only needed one match point to close out a comprehensive 6-1, 6-2 win over Karatantcheva.

Belinda will be pleased with her performance as she hit two aces to two double faults, 17 winners to 15 unforced errors, she won 67 percent of her first serve points and 71 percent of her second serve points and she won 75 percent of her points at the net.

It will be back to the drawing board for Sesil as she hit four aces to six double faults, 12 winners to 21 unforced errors and she won only 48 percent of her first serve points and 30 percent on her second.