Clara Tauson on Thursday crashed out of the second round of Madrid Open to Belinda Bensic from Switzerland 7-5, 7-5 after a disappointing performance where she was punished for a large number of unforced errors.
Clara Tauson managed to get only one match under her skin at the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid.
The Dane, who had a bye in the first round, lost her second round match on Thursday in two sets, 5-7, 5-7, to the experienced Swiss contender Belinda Bencic.
The Dane was up 5-4 in the first set and had a chance to close out the set but a couple of double faults proved costly. In the second set, she missed five break points, while Bencic took advantage of her first break point opportunity to decide the match.
Bensic returned to the tennis courts in October last year after becoming a mother, and she has already won a title since her comeback.
In February, Bencic won the WTA tournament in Abu Dhabi and is now ranked 42nd in the world.
Both Tauson and Bencic opened the match quite confidently in their own service games.
At 4-4 in the first set, however, a Swiss double fault gave Tauson the first break point of the match, and the Dane took advantage of it with a strong forehand winner.
In the following game, Tauson made two double faults and two failed drop shots allowing Bensic to break back.
The Dane seemed clearly frustrated, and trailing 5-6, Tauson gave the set away with two extra successive double faults.
A discouraged Dane then composed herself in the dressing ream in the break in between the sets.
Tauson followingly limited the number of unforced errors but Bencic defended herself heroically on her own serve.
When the Dane managed to threaten Bencic’s serve, the Swiss pulled out a couple of strong serves and winners.
Tauson had five break points during the second set, but couldn’t make any of them count and that proved costly as Bensic took advantage of the first of three breakpoints at 6-5 in her own favor.