On January 13th, the first round of the 2025 Australian Open women's singles featured a highly anticipated match between Ostapenko and Bencic. Ultimately, Ostapenko suffered a surprising 0-2 defeat, crashing out of the tournament as another seeded player eliminated. After the match, Bencic threw her racket in excitement, clenched her fists, and smiled widely, clearly thrilled with her victory.
Ostapenko is an extremely experienced player, ranked 22nd in the world and seeded 16th in the tournament. She has previously won a Grand Slam title and qualified directly for the main draw of this year's Australian Open. Bencic, on the other hand, is a Swiss player ranked only 294th in the world. Prior to this match, the two had faced each other twice, with both players winning one match each. However, considering overall strength, Ostapenko was considered the stronger player.
In the first set, Ostapenko quickly broke serve, but Bencic responded with a break of her own to level the score at 1-1. The two players then held their serves, with Bencic leading 4-3. In the eighth game, Bencic broke serve again to extend her lead to 5-3. In the ninth game, Bencic successfully converted her serve to win the set 6-3, taking a 1-0 lead over Ostapenko.
In the second set, Bencic broke serve early on, but Ostapenko immediately broke back to level the score at 1-1. In the third game, Bencic broke serve once more and then held serve to lead 3-1. In the sixth game, Bencic made a crucial double fault, allowing Ostapenko to break back and close the gap to 3-3. In the seventh game, Bencic broke serve again to lead 4-3. In the eighth game, Bencic held serve to lead 5-3. In the tenth game, Ostapenko saved a match point before breaking serve to level the score at 5-5. The two players then entered a thrilling tiebreak battle! In the tiebreak, Bencic narrowly won 8-6, defeating Ostapenko 2-0.
