January 21, 2020,

This is what you would call a great start to the Australian Open.

As reported by sportskeeda.com, “Belinda Bencic found ways to stay steady and take down Anna Schmiedlova for the first time winning 6-3, 7-5 on Margaret Court Arena on the grounds of Melbourne Park. The players met up for the second time with their last match going deep in Hobart last year which saw Schmiedlova edge Bencic for a spot in the final.”

If at first you don’t succeed, try to play steadier next time.

We’ll remember that.

Belinda Bencic sure did. Perfect timing.

Belinda Bencic is a Swiss professional tennis player who continues to bring a ton of excitement to the women’s professional tennis game.

She had a fantastic 2019 season.

As shared at wtatennis.com, “Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic has won the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award, which is given to the player whose ranking dropped due to injury or personal circumstances. Back in 2016, the Swiss had posted a career-high ranking of WTA World No.7 but had fallen on tougher times subsequently, with wrist surgery pushing her out of the Top 300 the following year.”

They add that the most impressive aspect of the 22-year-old’s form in 2019 has been her ability to raise her game against the top players. No-one scored more than her six Top 5 victories, which came at the expense of only two losses.

We loved watching her first round match and we want to know more about her.

Here is her story.

Let’s start by traveling to her website belinda-bencic.com where she smiles, “I love music and would like to share it with you. Apart from my favorite band Coldplay as well as Beyonce and Rihanna I also like other music that I would like to introduce to you from time to time. If you like it too you can listen to it here and download it for your playlist.” She also makes a plea for donations that will help offset the damages done by Australia’s fierce brush fires.  In terms of her tennis, Belinda has a powerful career-high Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking of No. 7 in the world which she first reached in February 2016, and has reached again in 2019.

Ms. Bencic has won four singles and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

Born in Switzerland to Slovak parents at a time when Slovak-Swiss player Martina Hingis was one of the best tennis players in the world, Belinda began playing tennis at the age of two.

Her father arranged for her to train with Hingis’s mother and coach Melanie Molitor daily from the age of seven. By the time she was 16, Belinda became the No. 1 ranked junior in the world and won two junior Grand Slam singles titles at the French Open and Wimbledon.

On the professional tour, she made her top 100 debut shortly after turning 17. Her first big breakthrough came at the 2014 US Open, where she became the youngest quarterfinalist since Hingis in 1997.

Belinda won her first two WTA titles in 2015, including the Canadian Open where she defeated four of the top six players in the world. She then made her top 10 debut the following year while still 18 years old.

After surging, the same old challenges that most players face after spending some time on the tour surfaced which is dealing with injuries.

From 2016 through 2018, Ms. 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 ranking drop outside the top 300.

Nonetheless, she rebounded quickly and rose back into the top 50 within a year of her comeback.

Her second Premier 5 title at the Dubai Tennis Championships helped her climb back into the top 20 in 2019, and she returned to the top 10 later that year after reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open.

Belinda was born on 10 March 1997 in Flawil in northeastern Switzerland.

Love their chocolate. Don’t you?

Milk chocolate, which is the best known Swiss chocolate type, is characterized by a high percentage of cocoa butter. The cocoa butter is responsible for making the chocolate quick to melt at body temperature. These two main soothing ingredients are a big part of the reason why Swiss chocolate is so famous.

It melts in your mouth.

Born to insightful parents, though her mother and father were both born in Czechoslovakia, her father’s family immigrated to Switzerland in 1968 to flee the Warsaw Pact invasion by the Soviet Union.

“I’ve been to a lot of places while touring, but I’d have to say Switzerland was my favorite.”… Drake Bell

Her father was a professional hockey player in the Swiss National League A and National League B before becoming an insurance broker. Her mother was a high-level handball player.

Belinda hit her first tennis balls at the age of two and began training with her father, who was also a recreational tennis player, for one hour per day at the age of four.

At the age of six, Belinda also spent six months at Nick Bollettieri‘s academy in Florida, winning several under-10 tournaments.

Belinda had a strong start to 2019. She reached the semifinals at the Hobart International and made it to the third round at the Australian Open, losing to eventual finalist Petra Kvitová.

Her next breakthrough came at the Dubai Tennis Championships. As an unseeded player, she defeated four top ten players in last four matches to win her third WTA singles title.

Our Swiss star is regularly compared to former world No. 1 Martina Hingis, as both players are Swiss, of Slovak descent, and have been coached by Martina’s mother.

Martina Hingis has compared herself with Bencic, saying, “The technique, my mom puts a lot of attention to that. So the game, I mean, [Bencic has] got a great backhand as well. But also she’s stronger, so she can work with other weapons than I had. I mean, maybe I was more maybe a little better mover, but when she hits a shot it can be a winner. Like she’s hitting a lot more winners than did I. So it’s different a little bit.”

Thank you Martina for the insight.

Her trademark is that Belinda excels at hitting the ball early or on the rise. In watching her first round match, she timed her strokes to perfection.

Perfect timing.

Perfect start to 2020.

The comeback player of 2019 is on the rise.

Her career and global popularity is on the rise as well.

Welcome to 2020, new Swiss Miss.

~ ~ ~

Open photo fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, grapplingstars.com, Forbes Magazine photo credit

https://www.belinda-bencic.com/en/

https://fciwomenswrestling.com/

https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/

https://grapplingstars.com/

https://www.sportskeeda.com/tennis/australian-open-2020-belinda-bencic-holds-back-anna-schmiedlova-in-straight-sets

https://www.usopen.org/en_US/players/overview/wta319001.html

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/1526929/2019-wta-comeback-player-of-the-year-belinda-bencic

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/switzerland-quotes