Charleston Open: Pegula vs Bencic Tennis Prediction & Pick

TennisSection previews the 2023 Charleston Open semifinal match featuring Jessica Pegula vs Belinda Bencic on Saturday, April 8, 2023.

Pegula vs Bencic Match Preview

Top seed Jessica Pegula will lock horns against defending champion Belinda Bencic in a blockbuster at primetime on Saturday. Who will prevail and reach the Charleston Open final?

Jessica Pegula surpassed Elena Rybakina for the most match wins on Tour, after scoring her 22nd win of the season in beating Paula Badosa in the quarterfinal of the Charleston Open. After her dramatic three-setter against Irina-Camelia Begu a round earlier, Pegula was assured this time from the baseline, outhitting the Spaniard and converting the lone break point of the set at 4-3 before serving out the first set. Pegula’s momentum stalled at 5-4 up in the second set when she served for the match, but quickly closed out the win in the tiebreak.

Belinda Bencic made it nine wins in a row on the green clay of the Charleston Open. The Swiss avenged her most recent loss to Ekaterina Alexadnrova in Miami and defeated the Russian 6-3, 6-3 to progress to the semifinal. Bencic fashioned 12 break points as Alexandrova’s serve completely disintegrated and converted five of those. She tallied 77% first-serve points won which was way higher than Alexandrova’s at 59%. Bencic will attempt to keep her 100% winning record against Jessica Pegula on Saturday.

Pegula vs Bencic Prediction and Pick

Belinda Bencic leads Jessica Pegula 3-0 in their head-to-head. Pegula attests she has improved a lot since they last met at the 2021 US Open. While Pegula has been a consistent force on the women’s circuit in the past two seasons, she hasn’t managed to stack up enough titles to back up her top-five status, with Guadalajara towards the end of last season being her second career title. So it is high time for Pegula to start converting her dominance into trophies and there is no better place to win her first title of 2023 than on her home turf. Bencic presents a monstrous challenge in the semis. The Swiss is as clean a hitter as you’ll get among the top 10 and is extremely well-rounded off both wings. Bencic’s first serve has also been a spine-chilling shot which she has used as a springboard to another great run here. With that said, I’ll still give Pegula a tiny advantage. She has played very well under pressure in most matches this year including one here at the Charleston Open.