Belinda Bencic is a Swiss professional tennis player.
110 Facts About Belinda Bencic
2.
Belinda Bencic has a career-high ranking of No 4 by the Women's Tennis Association which she achieved in February 2020.
3.
Belinda Bencic's father arranged for her to train with Hingis's mother and coach Melanie Molitor daily from the age of seven.
4.
Belinda Bencic won her first two WTA Tour titles in 2015, including the Canadian Open where she defeated four of the top six players in the world.
5.
Belinda Bencic then made her top-ten debut the following year while still 18 years old.
6.
From 2016 through 2018, Belinda Bencic struggled with a variety of injury issues, most notably needing to have wrist surgery in 2017 that kept her out for five months and saw her drop outside the top 300 in the WTA rankings.
7.
Belinda Bencic then posted her best season to date in 2019, winning her second Premier-5 title at the Dubai Championships reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open, qualifying for her first WTA Finals where she reached the semifinals, and finishing the year inside the top 10 for the first time, which helped her win the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award.
8.
Belinda Bencic was born in Flawil in northeastern Switzerland to Dana and Ivan Belinda Bencic.
9.
Belinda Bencic's parents were both born in Czechoslovakia, but her father's family emigrated to Switzerland in 1968 to escape from the Warsaw Pact invasion by the Soviet Union.
10.
Belinda Bencic's father was a professional hockey player in the Swiss National League A and National League B before becoming an insurance broker.
11.
Belinda Bencic hit her first tennis balls at the age of two and began training with her father, who was a recreational tennis player, for one hour per day at the age of four.
12.
Belinda Bencic entered her first national tournament at that age, losing to an opponent six years older in straight sets without winning a game.
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When Belinda Bencic was five years old, her father contacted fellow Czechoslovak immigrant Melanie Molitor, the mother and coach of world No 1 Swiss tennis player, Martina Hingis, for coaching advice.
14.
Hingis becoming the top player in the world around the time Belinda Bencic was born was one reason her father was inspired to introduce her to the sport of tennis.
15.
At the age of six, Belinda Bencic spent six months at Nick Bollettieri's academy in Florida, winning several under-10 tournaments.
16.
Niederer agreed to invest in Belinda Bencic, which gave her father the ability to quit his job so he could spend more time traveling with and coaching his daughter while she competed at tournaments.
17.
In 2004, when Belinda Bencic was seven years old, her family moved to Wollerau, where Molitor had just opened up her own academy, so that she could train there every day.
18.
Belinda Bencic continued to work with Molitor through her teenage years, and has occasionally worked with Hingis.
19.
Belinda Bencic began competing on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2010 at the age of 13, reaching the final in her debut event at the lowest-level Grade 5 Luzern Junior Competition in Switzerland.
20.
In early 2012, Belinda Bencic won two high-level Grade 1 events at the Czech International Junior Indoor Championships and the Open International Junior de Beaulieu-sur-Mer in France, the first of which coming at 14 years old.
21.
Belinda Bencic made her junior Grand Slam debut, playing in all of the major tournaments except the Australian Open.
22.
Belinda Bencic lost to the American team of Taylor Townsend and Gabrielle Andrews at both events, partnering with Ana Konjuh at the former and Petra Uberalova at the latter.
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Belinda Bencic closed out the year by winning her first Grade A title at the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano, losing just 15 games in six matches.
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Belinda Bencic did not play again on the junior tour until May 2013, instead opting to focus on professional events.
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Belinda Bencic defeated Antonia Lottner in the French Open final and Townsend in the Wimbledon final.
26.
Belinda Bencic became the first player to win the girls' singles titles at the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year since Amelie Mauresmo in 1996.
27.
Belinda Bencic was the first Swiss girl to win a junior Grand Slam singles title since Martina Hingis in 1994, who won the same two titles that year.
28.
Belinda Bencic had a third Grand Slam runner-up finish in doubles at the US Open, losing to the Czech team of Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova alongside Sara Sorribes Tormo.
29.
Belinda Bencic entered her first professional tournament on the ITF Women's Circuit in March 2011 in Fallanden, Switzerland, shortly after her 14th birthday.
30.
Belinda Bencic reached the quarterfinals as a qualifier, recording her first ITF main-draw win over compatriot Tess Sugnaux.
31.
Belinda Bencic received a wildcard into the main draw at the following year's event, where she lost her WTA Tour main-draw debut to Venus Williams.
32.
The tournament came a few weeks after Belinda Bencic had won her first two ITF singles titles in back-to-back weeks at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, winning the doubles title in the first week.
33.
In 2013, Belinda Bencic progressed from $10k to $25k and $50k tier events.
34.
Belinda Bencic played in three WTA Tour main draws in the second half of the year.
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Belinda Bencic won a match the following week at the Japan Women's Open.
36.
Belinda Bencic made her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, qualifying for the main draw.
37.
Belinda Bencic defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm in the first round in a matchup of the oldest and second-youngest players in the draw before losing to the eventual champion Li Na in her next match.
38.
Belinda Bencic defeated four top 100 players at the tournament, including No 29 Maria Kirilenko and No 11 Sara Errani.
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Belinda Bencic improved on that result at each of her next two Grand Slam events.
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Belinda Bencic closed out the year by reaching her first career WTA tournament final at the Tianjin Open, where she finished runner-up to Alison Riske.
41.
Belinda Bencic lost in the opening round at the Australian Open and the second round at the French Open.
42.
Belinda Bencic began to turn her year around during the grass-court season.
43.
Belinda Bencic then improved on her previous year's result at Wimbledon by reaching the fourth round.
44.
Belinda Bencic ended the summer with a third round loss at the US Open to Venus Williams.
45.
Belinda Bencic reached another final later that month at the Pan Pacific Open.
46.
Belinda Bencic returned to the tour for the Australian hardcourt season.
47.
Belinda Bencic had a strong start to the year, reaching the semifinals at the Sydney International and losing in the fourth round at the Australian Open to No 5, Maria Sharapova.
48.
At the St Petersburg Trophy, Belinda Bencic was the top seed and finished runner-up to Roberta Vinci.
49.
Belinda Bencic retired from her second-round match at Miami and was forced to miss nearly the entire clay-court season due to a back injury, including the French Open.
50.
Belinda Bencic returned for the grass-court season, but could not match her level of success prior to being injured.
51.
Belinda Bencic recorded multiple wins at just two more events the rest of the year, the Rosmalen Championships where she reached the semifinals and the US Open where she reached the third round.
52.
Belinda Bencic had to retire from her second-round match at Wimbledon due to a wrist injury.
53.
Belinda Bencic recorded just one WTA Tour singles match-win through the first four months of the year.
54.
Belinda Bencic was able to rise back into the top 200 in just one week after winning her first comeback tournament, the $100k Neva Cup.
55.
Belinda Bencic then received a wildcard to play at the Linz Open and made the quarterfinals in her only WTA Tour event before the end of the season.
56.
Belinda Bencic finished the year by winning three tournaments in a row in Asia.
57.
Belinda Bencic made her return to the Grand Slam tournaments at the Australian Open.
58.
Belinda Bencic did better at Wimbledon, matching her career-best result of a fourth-round appearance highlighted by a first-round upset of No 6, Caroline Garcia, and saving four match points in her second-round win against Alison Riske.
59.
Later that summer, Belinda Bencic lost her opening round match at the US Open.
60.
Belinda Bencic won the $80k title at the Red Rock Pro Open in Las Vegas, but still dropped from inside to No 54 by the start of 2019.
61.
Belinda Bencic reached the semifinals at the Hobart International and made it to the third round at the Australian Open, losing to eventual finalist Petra Kvitova.
62.
Belinda Bencic continued her win streak with a semifinal appearance at the Indian Wells Open.
63.
Belinda Bencic defeated two more top-ten players in No 1, Naomi Osaka, and No 5 Karolina Pliskova before losing to No 8, Angelique Kerber.
64.
Belinda Bencic recorded another world-number-one win over Osaka, but could not defeat Halep in a tight three-set match.
65.
Belinda Bencic only played the two Premier 5 tournaments in the lead-up to the US Open, with her best result a third-round appearance at the Canadian Open.
66.
At the US Open, Belinda Bencic produced the best Grand Slam result of her career to date.
67.
Belinda Bencic went on to make the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Bianca Andreescu.
68.
Belinda Bencic then finished the season strong by winning her second title of the year at the Kremlin Cup as a wildcard.
69.
Belinda Bencic defeated hometown favourite Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final, which helped her jump ahead of Kiki Bertens and Serena Williams to qualify for the WTA Finals for the first time.
70.
At the year-end championships, Belinda Bencic was grouped with Ashleigh Barty, Petra Kvitova, and Naomi Osaka, the latter of whom was replaced by Bertens after one match.
71.
Belinda Bencic's season came to an end with a semifinal loss to Elina Svitolina.
72.
Belinda Bencic finished the year at No 8 in the world.
73.
At the German Open, Belinda Bencic reached her second final in the season but lost, after a stunning comeback from the qualifier Liudmila Samsonova.
74.
Belinda Bencic had not won a title on the WTA 500-level in two years since she won the title in Moscow in 2019.
75.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Belinda Bencic beat Jessica Pegula, Misaki Doi, French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the semifinals.
76.
Belinda Bencic defeated Marketa Vondrousova in the final, to become the first Swiss woman to win the gold medal in singles.
77.
Belinda Bencic won silver in the women's doubles, teaming up with Viktorija Golubic.
78.
Belinda Bencic started her season at Sydney, she defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia, Oceane Dodin to reach the quarterfinals.
79.
At the Australian Open, Belinda Bencic lost to Amanda Anisimova in the second round.
80.
Belinda Bencic entered the Indian Wells Open, and as the 22nd seed received a bye in first round, but then lost to Kaia Kanepi in second.
81.
Belinda Bencic played in Miami seeded 22nd again, where she defeated Marta Kostyuk, Heather Watson, and Aliaksandra Sasnovich to reach her first Miami quarterfinal.
82.
Belinda Bencic entered the Charleston open as tenth seed and defeated Wang Xiyu, Linda Fruhvirtova and Madison Keys to reach the quarterfinals.
83.
However, Belinda Bencic lost to Ons Jabeur in the round of 16 at her next event, the Madrid Open.
84.
Belinda Bencic made it to the final losing to top seed Ons Jabeur; en-route to the final she defeated a few top players like Veronika Kudermetova and Maria Sakkari.
85.
Belinda Bencic defeated Liudmila Samsonova in the final to win her eighth title, after saving three match points.
86.
Belinda Bencic made her debut for the Switzerland Fed Cup team in 2012 at the age of 14.
87.
Belinda Bencic played in her first live rubbers in 2014 when Switzerland were World Group II.
88.
Belinda Bencic led the team to their 2016 first round over Germany, winning both of her singles matches against Andrea Petkovic and Angelique Kerber as well as the decisive doubles rubber with Martina Hingis.
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Belinda Bencic was injured for the next tie, a loss to the Czech Republic.
90.
Belinda Bencic was named to the team for the semifinal round against Belarus, but did not play in any of the live rubbers as she was dealing with a wrist injury at the time.
91.
In 2018, Switzerland were again eliminated by the Czech Republic, this time in the first round as Belinda Bencic lost both of her singles matches.
92.
Belinda Bencic was unavailable for the play-off round due to injury, which Switzerland lost to Romania to fall out of the World Group.
93.
The next year, Belinda Bencic led her team to a victory over Italy in World Group II with two singles wins.
94.
Belinda Bencic was among three other nominated players - Teichmann, Golubic and Waltert.
95.
Belinda Bencic has competed at the Hopman Cup in January with Roger Federer for three consecutive years from 2017 through 2019.
96.
Belinda Bencic reached the final defeating 15th seed Kazakh Elena Rybakina in the semifinals booking Switzerland the first Olympic female singles final.
97.
Belinda Bencic became the fifth player to reach two finals at the same Olympic event since tennis returned at the Games in 1988, joining Serena and Venus Williams, Andy Murray and Nicolas Massu.
98.
Belinda Bencic has an all-court game, who possesses an aggressive playing style.
99.
Belinda Bencic is regularly compared to former world No 1 Martina Hingis, as both players are Swiss, of Slovak descent, and have been coached by Hingis's mother.
100.
Belinda Bencic possesses the ability to hit powerful groundstroke winners, but she can hit lob and drop shot winners when presented with the opportunity.
101.
Belinda Bencic excels at hitting the ball early or on the rise, and is capable of turning defense into offense, excelling at redirecting cross-court shots down the line.
102.
Belinda Bencic is an accomplished opponent on all surfaces, although she has stated that her favourite surface is grass.
103.
Belinda Bencic was coached by Russian tennis player Dmitry Tursunov until April 2023.
104.
Belinda Bencic has been endorsed by Yonex for racquets since turning professional, and was endorsed by Adidas for clothing and footwear from 2011.
105.
In 2015, Belinda Bencic signed a 'top-to-toe' endorsement deal with Yonex, being supplied with clothing and footwear by the company, along with her racquets.
106.
In 2018, upon her return to professional tennis after a long injury layoff, Belinda Bencic became endorsed by Nike for clothing and footwear.
107.
In 2023, Belinda Bencic switched to Asics for clothing and footwear.
108.
Belinda Bencic has used the Yonex EZONE 100 racquet throughout her professional career.
109.
Belinda Bencic has a brother named Brian who is three years younger and plays tennis.
110.
Belinda Bencic trained with her at Molitor's academy and was ranked as a top 200 junior in the world.