Swiss teen Bencic shocks Serena in Toronto

Belinda Bencic shocked women’s tennis on Saturday, beating World No 1 Serena Williams in Toronto’s Premier 5 tournament with the final score of 3-6 7-5 6-4.

The victor of the first three Grand Slam events of the season, the 33-year-old Williams will face the victor of the late match between fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

She could go as far as No 12 if she wins the title facing Simona Halep on Sunday. But Bencic is crafty as well as enormously talented, and she knew just what buttons to push. She played every point like it was her last and the amusing part would be that she never saw it. The 18 year old opened up to 5-3 serving for the set to press Williams into a crucial third set to determine the finalist that would take on Halep.

“Obviously Halep is No. 3 in the world and she’s an fantastic player”, Bencic said.

“At the beginning I could not move my legs”. The tired Romanian was struggling to cope with Radwanska’s attacking tennis as she was hugging the baseline in the opening service games. “More than anything, though, I think her serve was what kept her going really strong in the match tonight”.

“It was hard to manage the tension because to be honest I had a little bit of pressure before the match”, Halep told Stubbs.

“I’ve had a great week”, Halep said. Then as 20th-ranked Bencic took the second we saw racquet smashes, multiple screams, F-Bombs and all of that good stuff that makes watching Serena have to fight and come from the brink so much fun. Sometimes I didn’t want to.

Halep, who was wilting in the early afternoon heat, dropped to her knees in relief after converting match point.

Halep, meanwhile, will appear in the Rogers Cup final for the first time and is looking for her fourth crown of the year. “And I’m not saying rap doesn’t, but I don’t know”.

Former WTA star Justine Henin was to be inducted in the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame before the match.

Awaiting Halep is defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska, who rallied from 4-2 down in the third set to edge Alize Cornet 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

In the tournament, Top seed Williams was not the only leading player to find it tough going on Tuesday, with Carla Suarez Navarro, Karolina Pliskova and Timea Bacsinszky all suffering first-round exits while 15th seed Sara Errani needed three sets before overcoming Kristina Mladenovic 5-7 6-1 6-0.