bencic miami 2r

Where to Watch

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The winner of this match will play No. 22 seed Elina Svitolina, who has a first-round bye. Bencic is playing the Miami Open for the first time since giving birth to her first child in 2024.

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Belinda Bencic proud of everything "even if I would've lost the match" against Coco Gauff 

Miami Open Match Preview

These two haven’t met for a while: 2019 in Hobart, to be exact, when Yastremska was 17. Bencic won that day, just as she won when they met the season before.

Six years later, Yastremska is ranked 42nd and Bencic 45th, but each has played better than that number would indicate so far in 2025. Bencic won a title in Abu Dhabi, made the quarters in Indian Wells, and reached the fourth round at the Australian Open. Yastremska was runner-up in Linz, and won two matches in Dubai and Indian Wells before losing to Iga Swiatek both times.

How Yastremska bounces back from the loss to Swiatek in Indian Wells will be important. It was a vintage-Iga 6-0, 6-2 blitz job that might not have been as close as those scores indicate. But Bencic could be in a similarly shaky position, confidence-wise: Her last match was a 6-1, 6-1 rout at the hands of Madison Keys in IW.

Still, on most days, Bencic, with her good hands and great backhand, is the safer bet than her gunslinging opponent. Winner: Bencic — Steve Tignor

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Betting Odds

Bencic is a -350 moneyline favorite; Yastremska is a +260 underdog.

To win the first set, Bencic is -285 and Yastremska is +195.

(Odds from BetMGM as of 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 18.)

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