Belinda Bencic was born on March 10, 1997, in Flawil, Switzerland, to Dana and Ivan Bencic. Ivan was a professional hockey player in the Swiss National League before becoming an insurance broker, and Dana was a high-level handball player.
Bencic prioritized tennis from a very young age. She began to train with the mother and coach of Martina Hingis, Melanie Molitor, at the age of just five, with this continuing into her teenage years. Further assistance came from entrepreneur Marcel Niederer, who invested heavily in Bencic’s career.
The Swiss player had a very accomplished junior career. She won the junior titles at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2013. This made her the first player to achieve this in the same year, Amelie Mauresmo in 1997. A very impressive start to her WTA career followed.
Bencic won the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2014 after reaching the US Open quarterfinal and a maiden WTA title at the Tianjin Open. Further success came in 2015. She claimed a maiden WTA title on the grass courts of Eastbourne in June.
A bigger title then came when Bencic won the WTA 1000 event in Toronto. Her run in Canada included triumphs against the world No. 1 Serena Williams and No. 3 Simona Halep in the final. Injuries then made life much harder for Bencic.
A back injury in 2016 and a left wrist injury in 2017 contributed to her ending 2017 ranked No. 165. To her immense credit, she fought back and ended 2018 as the world No. 37. Bencic had a very strong 2019. She won her second WTA 1000 title in Dubai by beating Petra Kvitova in the final.
The Swiss also reached a maiden Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open, a run that included wins against defending champion Naomi Osaka and future US Open champion Coco Gauff. A huge moment in Bencic’s career came at the Olympic Games in 2021.
She progressed to the quarterfinals with triumphs against Jessica Pegula, Misaki Doi, and that year’s French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova. Tough and grueling three-set battles followed against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Rybakina, but Bencic came through both to reach the final.
Another three-set victory over Marketa Vondrousova saw the Swiss win the gold medal in singles, something not even her legendary compatriot Roger Federer achieved. Bencic then won the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup with Team Switzerland.
She played a starring role in the finals of the event by prevailing in all five ties that she played in singles and doubles. Two more WTA titles in 2023 led to Bencic finishing the year inside the Top 20 for a second consecutive year before she took some time away from tennis after becoming pregnant with her first child.
