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Williams arrived on the court to a standing ovation and had the
full support of the capacity crowd throughout the 77-minute
match but was unable to conjure up the old magic that helped her
lift three titles in Canada.
"It's been a pretty interesting 24 hours ... I'm terrible at
goodbyes. But, goodbye Toronto," an emotional Williams told the
crowd.
"I always had amazing times here both on and off the court. I'll
be coming back just as a visitor to the city but otherwise its
been remarkable."
After the match, Williams was presented with team jerseys of
Toronto's NBA and NHL teams for her and her daughter, who was in
attendance, as well as a bouquet of flowers that she carried off
the court while wiping back tears.
Prior to the match, a tribute video was played featuring
comments from tennis pioneer Billie Jean King, current players
like Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu as well as ice hockey great
Wayne Gretzky and highlights of Williams' Canadian triumphs.
The highly-anticipated match was played a day after 23-time
Grand Slam champion Williams revealed in a Vogue article that
she was "evolving away from tennis" and planned to retire from
the sport she has dominated for over two decades.
Olympic champion Bencic saved the lone break point she faced in
the opening set and broke Williams twice to jump ahead 5-2 but
the Swiss 12th seed then needed five set points to clinch the
opening frame.
In the second set, Bencic got the one break she needed to go
ahead 4-3 when Williams struck a double-fault and the Swiss
never looked back as she sealed the match on her serve when
Williams sent a return long.
"It was a lot of emotions obviously," Williams said about how it
felt to take the court. "I love playing here, I've always loved
playing here. I wish I could've played better but Belinda played
so well today."
Up next for Bencic will be Spanish eighth seed Garbine Muguruza,
who was a 6-4 6-4 winner over Estonia's Kaia Kanepi.
Among the others reaching the last 16 of the tune-up event for
the Aug. 29-Sept. 11 U.S. Open were world number one Iga Swiatek,
defending champion Camila Giorgi, Coco Gauff, Simona Halep,
Karolina Pliskova, Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Peter
Rutherford)
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