Swiss mum Bencic through to her first Wimbledon semis

LONDON :Switzerland's Belinda Bencic won two tiebreaks to beat Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva 7-6(3) 7-6(2) on Wednesday and reach the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time.

The only mother left in the singles draw smashed her first of four match points to win the second tie-break of the contest and become her country's first women's semi-finalist since Martina Hingis in 1998.

Poland's five-times Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek now stands between her and a place in the final.

Andreeva, 18, fired four aces in the opening set to none for Bencic and there was next to nothing between the pair until the Russian netted a couple of forehands in the tie-break.

Bencic had two break points at 4-4 in the second set, Andreeva saving one and then hitting long to go 5-4 down and leaving the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion to serve for a place in the last four.

Andreeva refused to follow the script, however, and broke straight back to 5-5 before going to 6-5 with 28-year-old Bencic then serving to take the match to another tie-break.