CHINA TOPIX

03/28/2024 07:00:22 pm

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U.S. Open: Peng Shuai Crushes Belinda Bencic to Reach First Semis

China's Peng Shuai crushed Belinda Bencic to reach her very first Grand Slam semi-finals at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York on Tuesday morning.

The 50th ranked Peng dominated 17-year-old Bencic of Switzerland in two straight sets 6-2 6-1 in an hour and four minutes.

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Peng, 28, delivered five services aces, 24 winners, limited her unforced errors to just seven and broke Safarova four times to enter her very first semis.

"It's an amazing time for me," a very emotional Peng said. "It's a little bit too exciting."

Peng made it into the semis in style, beating all of her opponents in just two sets. She is really happy that it's happening now because in the beginning of this year, "I was doing a lot of fitness ... to improve my game" said Peng.

She also feels that, "I catch like right time."

Bencic on the other hand felt that Peng's angled shots were amazing and that she had troubles with her double-handed backhand returns.

"I think she has a dangerous game with both hands and the ball is coming different from her racket," Bencic said. "I had a little bit troubles with this today. Angles are great."

The lone Chinese national in the singles tournament will face the winner of the Caroline Wozniacki and Sarra Errani fight, set to battle it out at the Arthur Ashe Stadium Tuesday night.

Peng, along with Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei are the French Open doubles champions but were eliminated by the duo of Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan and Czech Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova.

Peng admitted that while playing doubles against Date-Krumm and Zahlavova-Strycova, she had actually wanted to wuit.

"My body actually is I feel is dead, so dizzy in the court," she said.

World No. 3 Li Na was not able to participate in the tournament due to an injured knee but Peng have raised the flag for China.

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