tennis | Četvrtak, Avgust 11, 2022 10:39 AM (Revised at: Četvrtak, Avgust 11, 2022 11:03 AM)

Thursday Tennis Best Bet: WTA Toronto, Belinda Bencic vs. Garbine Muguruza

Jon Reid

Belinda Bencic vs. Garbine Muguruza Best Bet: Thursday, August 11th

We’re down to the final 16 women in Toronto, with many of the headliners still alive as we near the latter stages of the tournament on the weekend.

For Thursday’s featured selection, we’ll be previewing the night session matchup between two stalwarts inside the top-20 of the women’s game in Belinda Bencic and Garbine Muguruza.

In this article:

Belinda Bencic vs. Garbine Muguruza Preview
Belinda Bencic vs. Garbine Muguruza Best Bet

Belinda Bencic vs. Garbine Muguruza Preview

August 12th, 1:30 UK Time

The 2022 season has quietly been a strong one for the Swiss No. 1, who is now just one win away from reaching the quarterfinals in four of her last five events played (the exception being a shock loss in the opening round of Wimbledon to Qiang Wang).

The same cannot be said for Muguruza, however, who has failed to win more than two matches at any event this year. In fact, since she had a first-round bye in this draw, she needs to beat Bencic this evening in order to lodge her second victory of the week in Toronto.

These two have certainly taken divergent paths over the course of the last eight months or so, and tonight shouldn’t be much different. Bencic should be able to capitalise on the Spaniard’s struggles and major lack of consistency.

While there’s no doubting which of the two is in better form (Bencic has also been more impressive in dispatching both Tereza Martincova and Serena Williams this week), it should also be noted that she possesses a stylistic edge over Muguruza.

Not only does she back up her own serve decently, but she’s also more adept on return than Muguruza’s previous opponent in Kaia Kanepi, and takes the ball much earlier. That tendency to take the ball on the rise is a staple of her game that can really bother opponents, as it takes time they’re used to having away to set up their next shot.

With the world No. 8 already a step or two late fairly often as it is and prone to bouts of unforced errors, having less time to track down the flat groundstrokes from Bencic should do nothing but exacerbate those issues.

Belinda Bencic vs. Garbine Muguruza Best Bet

I’m simply not convinced that one win over a potentially fatigued Kanepi (who played in the final on Sunday in Washington and then had an opening round match to win here) means we should be giving Muguruza the respect to be a underdog of fewer than four games.

Especially considering she’s playing a much better opponent, who can do far more to trouble her and has had a much better season than the Estonian she played previously.

I’ll forfeit the 3.5 games to start the match and back Bencic.