Return Winners: The 2015 WTA Eastbourne final

Youth vs. experience defined the 2015 Eastbourne final between Belinda Bencic and Agnieszka Radwanska.

After the retirement of Martina Hingis from singles, a young Swiss player looked to follow in her footsteps on the WTA Tour.

After a stellar junior career, Bencic made a quick impression on the senior tour, winning the Newcomer of the Year award for 2014. With her game largely shaped by Hingis’ mother, Melanie Molitor, Bencic started 2015 still navigating the ebbs and flows of life as a professional, posting some mixed results.

During the grass-court season, the 18-year-old caught fire, reaching her second career final in Rosmalen and following that up soon after with another championship appearance in Eastbourne, the last tournament before Wimbledon.

Her opponent would be the veteran Radwanska, the 2012 Wimbledon finalist looking for her first title of the season.

Facing each other for the first time, the former Wimbledon girls’ champions spent the early stages of the first set testing each other’s games, staying even before exchanging breaks three consecutive times. The last one proved to come at an opportune time for Bencic, putting her up 5-4. Serving for the opener, she clinched it behind a booming backhand on set point.

Playing in her 21stcareer singles final, compared to only the third for her young opponent, Radwanska appeared to be undaunted by dropping the first set. Fighting through some struggles with her game, the Pole came up with the goods at the most crucial moment as she broke Bencic up 5-4 to level the match at a set apiece.

Any momentum Radwanska might have gained with that second-set win was immediately snatched away by her younger opponent, who broke serve in the opening game. With her shotmaking ability on full display, Bencic broke Radwanska again on her next service game to go up 3-0. Finally, up 5-0, 40-0, Bencic ripped one more forehand winner at match point to claim her first career singles title.

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Bencic was the only WTA player to make two grass-court finals before Wimbledon that year.

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With the win, Bencic became the third player since 2010 to make this her first career title after Ekaterina Makarova in 2010 and Madison Keys in 2014.

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Radwanska’s most recent grass-court final appearance was in 2012, when she reached the championship round at Wimbledon.

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