‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands – Belinda Bencic returned to the semifinals of the Ricoh Open courtesy of a hard-fought win over qualifier Viktorija Golubic on Friday afternoon.

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Twelve months ago, Bencic made it all the way to the final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Understandably given her recent injury lay-off her tennis is yet to sparkle this time, and against Golubic she dug deep to eventually prevail, 7-6(6), 7-6(2).

“Like yesterday I just fought with everything I had obviously. I think she played very well and it was a very intense match and I’m happy that I fought through it,” Bencic, who let leads slip in both sets, said afterwards. “It’s good for both of us that we’re in the quarterfinal here and I’m very happy to be back in the semifinals here.”

There she will face her good friend Kristina Mladenovic, a relatively comfortable 7-5, 6-3 winner earlier in the day over the draw’s other remaining qualifier, Elise Mertens. Coincidentally, their only previous meeting also came in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Bencic winning in three tight sets en route to last year’s final.

“It’s like every normal match – you try to prepare as best you can. It will be different because actually she’s my very good friend, but I’ll try and take it like a normal match and improve everything I can,” Bencic added when asked about putting their friendship to one side on Saturday afternoon.

The other semifinal will be an all-American affair, pitting the big-serving CoCo Vandeweghe against Madison Brengle. Vandeweghe continued her impressive progress by swatting aside Evgeniya Rodina, 6-2, 6-2, while Brengle defeat Kateryna Kozlova, 7-5, 6-4.