Belinda Bencic, of Switzerland, returns to Serena Williams, of the United States, during the Rogers Cup semifinal tennis tournament, Saturday, August 15, 2015 in Toronto. Bencic beat Williams. AP
TORONTO, Canada — Top-ranked Serena Williams stumbled in the Rogers Cup semifinals Saturday night, falling 6-3, 5-7, 4-6 to Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic.
The winner of the first three Grand Slam events of the season, the 33-year-old Williams lost for only the second time in 45 matches this season. She won titles in Toronto titles in 2001, 2011 and 2013.
The 18-year-old Bencic, ranked 20th, has knocked off three seeded players en route to her first career appearance in a Premier-5 Level event. She opened with a victory over Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and followed with wins over fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki and fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic.
In the other semifinal, second-ranked Simona Halep of Romania beat Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 6-4.
In the doubles semfinals, fourth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia beat top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India, 6-3, 6-2; and third-seeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic topped Kristina Mladenovic of France and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-6 (5).