Belinda Bencic has played her fair share of thrillers in her first full season back on the WTA Tour since 2023, but none lasted as long as Wednesday\u2019s second-round battle against qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva in Ningbo.<\/p>\n
Ningbo: Scores<\/a> | Draws<\/a> | Order of play<\/a><\/p>\n The No. 6 seed needed 3 hours and 33 minutes — and a comeback from a set down — to defeat the Ukrainian 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in the longest WTA main-draw match of 2025 so far. It marked the 46th match of the season to exceed three hours.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really intense match with a lot of ups and downs,\u201d Bencic said after the match. \u201cShe was giving me a really tough time, playing smart and intelligent. But in the end, I toughed it out. I\u2019m really proud of never giving up and always sticking in there. I\u2019m excited for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n With the win, Bencic advanced to the Ningbo Open quarterfinals, her fourth quarterfinal appearance of the season. There, she\u2019ll face the winner of Jasmine Paolini and Veronika Kudermetova.<\/p>\n \u201cJasmine is playing amazing,\u201d Bencic said. \u201cShe\u2019s a top player and she\u2019s really consistent. And with Veronika, we\u2019ve played so many matches already. It\u2019s always going one way or the other, so she\u2019d be tough as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Bencic started strong, taking a 5-4 lead and earning a set point in the opener. But Starodubtseva saved it and broke to level the set. Two games later, she broke again to steal the set.<\/p>\n Seventy-three minutes in, it was clear the match was headed for a marathon.<\/p>\n Bencic again jumped ahead 5-2 in the second set, but Starodubtseva rallied to 5-4. This time, Bencic held serve and converted the set point to force a decider after more than two hours.<\/p>\n In the third, Bencic once more led 5-2. Starodubtseva saved two match points and broke serve to close the gap to 5-3, eventually leveling the set at 5-all. But Bencic broke back and then held at love, converting her third match point to seal the win.<\/p>\n The match narrowly eclipsed the previous longest of the season — Coco Gauff\u2019s three-set semifinal win over Zheng Qinwen in Rome — by one minute.<\/p>\n Here are all of 2025\u2019s three-hour WTA main draw matches so far (as of October 15):\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Belinda Bencic d. Yuliia Starodubtseva 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, Ningbo R2 (3:33)
2. Coco Gauff d. Zheng Qinwen 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(4), Rome SF (3:32)
3. Viktorija Golubic d. Arantxa Rus 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(10), Cluj-Napoca R1 (3:30)
4. Maria Sakkari d. Ashlyn Krueger 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5, Beijing R1 (3:29)
5. Ella Seidel d. Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 7-5, Seoul R2 (3:28)
6. Lucia Bronzetti d. Zhu Lin 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-6(6), Cincinnati R1 (3:27)
7. Laura Siegemund d. Tatjana Maria 7-5, 6-7(6), 7-6(2), Montreal R1 (3:26)
8. Tatjana Maria d. Chloe Paquet 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4, Bogota R1 (3:25)
T9. Aliaksandra Sasnovich d. Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6[8], Wimbledon R1 (3:24)
T9. Lois Boisson d. Dalma Galfi 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-2, Beijing R1 (3:24)
11. Gao Xinyu d. Beatriz Haddad Maia 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, United Cup RR (3:22)
T12. Daria Kasatkina d. Peyton Stearns 7-6(7), 4-6, 7-5, Brisbane R2 (3:21)
T12. Liudmila Samsonova d. Jessica Pegula 6-7(8), 7-5, 7-6(5), Berlin R2 (3:21)
T12. Diane Parry d. Tara Wuerth 7-6(9), 3-6, 7-5, Hamburg R1 (3:21)
T15. Emma Navarro d. Peyton Stearns 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5, Australian Open R1 (3:20)
T15. Wang Xinyu d. Jil Teichmann 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-4, Singapore QF (3:20)
T17. Laura Siegemund d. Hailey Baptiste 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, Australian Open R1 (3:16)
T17. Jaqueline Cristian d. Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3, Indian Wells R2 (3:16)
T17. Yuliia Starodubtseva d. Wang Yafan 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4, Montreal R1 (3:16)
T20. Yulia Putintseva d. Diana Shnaider 7-6(3), 6-7(9), 6-4, Adelaide QF (3:14)
T20. Harriet Dart d. Jana Fett 7-5, 2-6, 7-6[7], Australian Open R1 (3:14)
22. Rebecca Sramkova d. Laura Siegemund 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(6), Nottingham R1 (3:13)
T23. Jule Niemeier d. Laura Siegemund 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, Stuttgart R1 (3:12)
T23. Magdalena Frech d. Sara Errani 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(5), Stuttgart R1 (3:12)
T23. Emiliana Arango d. Viktoriya Tomova 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4, Rome R1 (3:12)
T23. Leylah Fernandez d. Elena Rybakina 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 7-6(3), Washington SF (3:12)
T27. Clara Tauson d. Caroline Dolehide 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, Washington R2 (3:10)
T27. Renata Zarazua d. Madison Keys 6-7(10), 7-6(3), 7-5, US Open R1 (3:10)
T29. Aryna Sabalenka d. Emma Raducanu 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(5), Cincinnati R3 (3:09)
T29. Moyuka Uchijima d. Olga Danilovic 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6[9], US Open R1 (3:09)
31. Anastasia Zakharova d. Kimberly Birrell 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, Cleveland R1 (3:08)
32. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro d. Louisa Chirico 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, Montreal R1 (3:06)
T33. Katie Volynets d. Erika Andreeva 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-2, Auckland R1 (3:05)
T33. Leolia Jeanjean d. Yuliia Starodubtseva 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, Cincinnati R1 (3:05)
35. Barbora Krejcikova d. Taylor Townsend 1-6, 7-6(13), 6-3, US Open R4 (3:04)
T36. Cristina Bucsa d. Emma Raducanu 5-7, 7-5, 7-5, Singapore R1 (3:03)
T36. Belinda Bencic d. Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2), Madrid R3 (3:03)
T36. Jaqueline Cristian d. Camila Osorio 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4, Rabat SF (3:03)
39. Beatriz Haddad Maia d. Emma Navarro 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2, Strasbourg QF (3:02)
T40. Sorana Cirstea d. Emma Navarro 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5, Dubai R3 (3:01)
T40. Camila Osorio d. Ann Li 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5, Beijing R1 (3:01)
T40. Laura Siegemund d. Mirra Andreeva 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3, Wuhan R2 (3:01)
T43. Destanee Aiava d. Greet Minnen 5-7, 7-5, 7-6[6], Australian Open R1 (3:00)
T43. Anna Bondar d. Noma Noha Akugue 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3), Hamburg R1 (3:00)
T43. Ajla Tomljanovic d. Renata Zarazua 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(1), Monterrey R1 (3:00)
T43. Diana Shnaider d. Elise Mertens 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4), Monterrey QF (3:00)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belinda Bencic has played her fair share of thrillers in her first full season back on the WTA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-202802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}