Speaking to reporters after her second-round doubles victory, Martina Hingis fielded more questions about rising 17-year-old Belinda Bencic than she did about her own game. No worries, Hingis has a vested interested in the talented Swiss, and she was more than happy to engage in some conversation about Bencic’s form and her chances at this year’s US Open.

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“I have watched all her matches so far in this Open,” said Hingis, whose mother, Melanie Molitor, has been Bencic’s coach since she was a young child. “She surprised me. Honestly, the first match I think already I practiced with her on Sunday and I'm like, ‘Wow, she played really good.’ So I was, you know, expecting her to do well, but not as well as she actually did in the Wickmayer match. I think after that she just started to believe. Yesterday [her straight-sets upset of Angelique Kerber] was a great match. I'm very happy for her. It's nice. My mom did most of the work the last ten years, so she's finally proving it.”

When asked if she thought Bencic could be the future of Swiss tennis, Hingid sounded pretty sanguine. “It's not only that she can be, hopefully she will be,” she said.

Hingis was careful to not harp on similarities between Bencic’s game and hers, and she danced around those questions with care, wanting to be sure that the media knew Bencic is her own player.

“She's stronger, so she can work with other weapons than I had,” Hingis said. “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.

Bencic told reporters that basically everything she knows she owes to Molitor, and the efforts of both are clearly paying off. The 17-year-old reached her first career semifinal in Charleston this spring a few months after winning her first Grand Slam match at Australian. This summer, she reached the third round at Wimbledon.

Hingis is impressed with her steady maturation. “Every three months you can see improvements,” she said. “Also, the big difference is like the belief that you can actually win against big players, great players, seeded players in Grand Slams. I'm very happy for her that she was able to do that yesterday.”

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