Bencic Withdraws From Madrid & Rome Due To Injury
WTA
Belinda Bencic has been dealing with a hip injury for a while, and that injury officially cost her participation at the Madrid Open and the Italian Open in Roe as she withdrew from both WTA 1000 events.
Bencic has had a fascinating year so far, as the reigning gold medalist had both great showings and some rather lackluster ones. For example, she made the Charleston Open final not long ago, showing a high level on the green clay.
Unfortunately for her, now that the season is supposed to shift over to the more familiar red clay, the Swiss player is having issues. The hip injury has been something that has been bothering Bencic for a while, so it’s not an acute or new injury, but it’s clear that it’s gotten bad enough for her to need some time off.
She didn’t want to withdraw from both the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, but with Roland Garros looming large, it made the most sense because, ultimately, that’s the tournament that every player wants to play, as it's a Grand Slam as opposed to WTA 1000 events.
The hope for Bencic, which she expressed in her announcement, is that the time away from the courts will be enough for her to recover well enough to play at the French Open.
"I have some discomfort in my hip, which I struggled with during the U.S. swing as well, and need to take a little rest and recover to be back at 100% for Roland-Garros. I will miss both tournaments dearly, but I will be back in a few weeks and can’t wait to be back competing soon and continuing in great form."
Time will tell whether that will be the case, but Bencic's tone didn’t seem to indicate that this is some massive issue that will cause her too many problems down the road. It’s probably fatigue-related, as she did play a lot this year.
