By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Wild card Belinda Bencic beat No. 3 Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 avenging an Australian Open loss and advancing to the Indian Wells quarterfinals.
Photo credit: BNP Paribas Open Facebook
A pregnant pause preceded Belinda Bencic’s biggest win of the season.
Eleven months after giving birth to baby Bella, Bencic is celebrating career rebirth.
Wild card Bencic broke in the penultimate game then served out a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over third-ranked Coco Gauff to advance to the Indian Wells quarterfinals.
It is Bencic’s biggest win, by ranking, of the season. Bencic beat No. 5 Elena Rybakina en route to the Abu Dhabi championship earlier this season.
In a rematch of the 2025 Australian Open fourth round, which Gauff won in three sets, Bencic was more assertive at closing time in beating the American for the first time since the 2021 Adelaide semifinals.
Serving at 4-all in the decider, Gauff opened a 40-love lead.
Undaunted, Bencic broke down the Gauff forehand and broke for 5-4.
Bencic banged a backhand down the line for match point. When Gauff floated a loopy forehand, the Swiss watched, waited to see where the ball would fall, then dropped her Yonex stick to the court in joy seeing the ball land long.
"Of course the game at 40-Love was very, like, turning point," Bencic told the media in Indian Wells. "So I really, I mean, tried to be focused there and kind of hang in there. Obviously it was great, you know, to be able then to serve at the match for 5-4.
"Yeah, I felt like she was more tense, so I felt like that was the right time to go for her forehand. Obviously, like, it's difficult to all the time go at one side, because I feel like if someone is not so confident on one side, the worse you can do is give them rhythm.
"t was an instinctive choice, and definitely feel like also a tactical thing, and I hope that the score pressure would also kind of work into her mindset a little bit of not being so confident and being a little bit tight."
Former Olympic gold-medal champion Bencic continues her remarkable return to tennis.
Bencic, who gave birth to baby Bella last April, took a six-month maternity leave last season. The Swiss finished 2024 ranked No. 913 and has bounced back impressively this season rocketing to No. 45 in the live rankings.
The 2019 Indian Wells semifinalist Bencic will face either Australian Open champion Madison Keys or Donna Vekic for a semifinal spot.
Attacking the American’s sometimes fragile forehand wing and her second serve, Bencic won 18 of 27 points played on Gauff’s second serve, exploited eight double faults and played a cleaner match committing nine fewer unforced errors.
Over the last two sets, Bencic did not drop serve.
"She's playing very well," Gauff said of Bencic. "Yeah, I think today the difference was she's a bit more aggressive than I was.
"In those moments in Australia, I stepped up my game to be more aggressive the last two sets. She kind of did that to me.
"Overall, like, the match is kind of won and lost off of very small margins. Today didn't go my way, but I think there is a lot of things I can improve on to do better next time."
Today, Bencic held at 30 to level the set after four games.
Playing with more spin and height on many of her shots, Gauff was solid in baseline exchanges. Gauff moved the ball corner to corner drawing the error to break for 4-2.
The 2023 US Open champion slid a forehand winner down the line navigating a tough deuce hold to confirm the break for 5-2.
In her jittery 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 opening-round win over Moyuka Uchijima, Gauff spit up 21 double faults and her mid-court forehand frequently failed her, to the point she was sometimes hitting slice forehands on short balls.
Serving for the first set today, Gauff spun two forehand winners down the line earning set point. Bencic sprayed a forehand as Gauff wrapped a clean 53-minute opening set.
Bencic took treatment for a big toe blister then put her foot down. Bencic broke at 15 for a 2-0 second-set lead.
Picking on the Gauff forehand repeatedly, Bencic drew an errant forehand bursting out to a 3–0 lead.
The Olympic gold medal champion converted her second set point to seal the second set and force a decider.
Prior to the final set, Bencic again took about a six-minute medical timeout for treatment for a blister on her left hand.
Dialing in her first serve, Gauff stamped her third love hold of the match edging ahead 3-2.
Through the first eight games of the decider, neither woman could manage a break point.
Then Gauff blinked in the ninth game. Squandering a 40-love lead, Gauff was decelerating on her forehand at times. Gauff scooped a backhand long then flew a forehand beyond the baseline ceding the crucial break and a 5-4 lead to Bencic.
"I mean, against Belinda is tough, because she hits the ball so low and flat, so it's tough to kind of hit how I would like, but, I mean, I made some errors in the last game and also in the game before," Gauff said. "I don't know. This feels like one of those things where I kind of have to go for more margin...
"I think there is a balance in it, but I think today, honestly, I felt like I let her dictate a lot from the backhand corner."
The Swiss' signature shot, her backhand down the line, brought Bencic match point. She closed a two hour, 20-minute win on that final Gauff floated forehand.