By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday October 19, 2019
Just over four years ago Belinda Bencic, in the midst of a 40-win season, reeled off four Top 10 wins (including one over then World No.1 Serena Williams) to take the Toronto title.
She was only 18 then, but it was easy to see that she possessed great promise. Coached by Melanie Molitor, Martina Hingis’ mother, from a young age, Bencic had developed a game based on taking the ball early, on the rise, so that she could pepper opponents with her metronomic groundstrokes.
There were the intangibles, as well.
She was tough, determined and tactically astute.
“I of course tried to have always a good tactic when I go to the court,” Bencic said after downing Williams in three sets in Toronto, her first of four wins over reigning No.1 players. “I think it's my weapon. I may not have the most powerful game or something. But I try to find the weakness in the opponent's game.”
But there was also the injuries. And they came quickly to sabotage the Swiss’ march up the rankings in 2016. After becoming the youngest player to crack the Top 10 in some seven years in February of 2016, a back injury halted her season. She would return to the court in two months, but by 2017 the problems worsened and she underwent wrist surgery and played just 11 matches that season.
After dropping outside the Top 200 Bencic began her climb back up the rankings in 2018, winning 18 matches out of 34 and finding her way back to within shouting distance of the Top 50. But by then the Swiss was no longer the rising starlet with her eyes on the No.1 ranking. Naomi Osaka had just won the 2018 US Open, Daria Kasatkina was in the Top 10 and Aryna Sabalenka was knocking on the door as well.
That’s why not many pundits had Bencic tabbed for glory in 2019 when she began the year outside the Top 50. She was talented, but also oft-injured. Would she ever possess the ability to stay healthy over the course of a grinding season on tour again?
Ten months later we know the answer.
Bencic raised eyebrows and hopes this spring when she reeled off ten straight wins that included a title run in Dubai, six consecutive Top 10 wins and an upset of then No.1-ranked Osaka at Indian Wells.
It wasn’t just her game that impressed. It was also Bencic’s newfound fitness and her ability to power through long, arduous matches. She has won 18 three-setters in 2019, her best total in a single season to date.
For Bencic to play her style of game and attack so many balls early and on the rise, she needs to not just be healthy—she needs to be fit, flexible and strong in the core. Maybe her injuries as a younger player reflected a lack of this type of strength manifesting itself in the rest of her body.
That appears to have changed in 2019.
“I think I did great steps forward in the fitness side. I definitely feel like I'm moving much, much better on the court than I have ever moved,” Bencic told Tennis Now at Indian Wells in March. “And also, you know, I actually never feel like I'm getting tired or, like, more tired than my opponent on the court. I think that was the huge improvement. I think you definitely need it against the top of the world to be just incredibly fit and not just, like, one week but obviously many weeks in a row.”
Now with a career-best 45 wins in tow, Bencic has booked her spot in the WTA Finals for the first time. At the eleventh hour she has squeaked past Serena Williams, who chose not to play after the US Open and therefore did not increase her points total. It’s a shame that Williams will not be going to Shenzhen, but on the flip side of that news is the extreme positivity of what Bencic has accomplished in 2019.
The Swiss has overcome major adversity, doubt and physical obstacles to once again emerge at the top of the sport. It’s hard to believe that she’s still only 22, but it’s true. And now that she’s healthy, happy and towing a ton of wisdom from her travails, we can look forward to big things from Bencic in the weeks—and years to come.