Belinda Bencic was born on March 10 1987 in Flawil in northeastern Switzerland to Dana and Ivan Benčič. She is now a Swiss professional tennis player. In February 2020 she achieved a career-high ranking of no 4 by the WTA and currently has 5 WTA singles and 2 WTA doubles titles to her credit. She even won a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
She is often referred to as a wonder child of the game as she started playing tennis at the tender age of 2. Seeing such love for the sport in such a young child, her father arranged for training with Melanie Molitor who was the mother and coach of world No. 1 Swiss tennis player, Martina Hingis.
In fact, Belinda Bencic was being compared to Martina Hingis due to their aggressive playing style. Bencic possesses a powerful first serve and excels at hitting the ball early or on the rise, and is capable of turning defense into offense.
Biotable
| Age | 24 |
| Height | 1.75 mts |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Turned professional | 2012 |
| Career titles | 5 |
| Highest ranking (Singles) | No. 4 |
| Current ranking (Singles) | No. 22 |
| Social media profile | Instagram @belindabencic
Twitter @BelindaBencic |
Personal Information and Relationships
- Belinda was born in Flawil Switzerland to Dana and Ivan Benčič.
- Her parents are both from Czechoslovakia, but in 1968, her father’s family emigrated to Switzerland to flee the Soviet Union invasion.
- Her parents are both athletes with her father being a professional hockey player and her mother a professional handball player.
- Martina Hingis was a top player in the world around the time Bencic was born and this was one reason her father was inspired to introduce her to the sport of tennis.
- Her first tennis coach was her father followed by Melanie Molitor.
- When Bencic was seven years old, her family moved to Wollerau so that Belinda could train at Molitor’s tennis academy.
- Bencic has a brother named Brian who is three years younger and also plays tennis.
- In 2012, her father again became her primary coach. She then worked with Iain Hughes and Vladimir Platenik until her father took over again in late 2018.
Career
- Bencic entered her first professional tournament on the ITF Women’s Circuit in March 2011 in Fällanden, Switzerland and her WTA Tour qualifying debut at the Luxembourg Open in Oct 2011
- At the Canadian Open in August 2015, Bencic produced her best performance of the year to win the title. During her run, she defeated six of the top 25 players in the world, including four of the top six, thus allowing her to rise to No. 12 in the world.
- In 2017 She recorded just one WTA Tour singles match win at the beginning of the year, she then underwent wrist surgery in April 2017 that kept her off the courts until September
- During this time her ranking dropped to no 312 in the world but she was soon able to reach the top 200. Bencic finished the year by winning three tournaments in a row in Asia. She ended the year at No. 74 in the world.
- In 2019 she rose from No. 45 to world No. 23. She then produced the best Grand Slam result of her career to date at the US open thus allowing her to finish the year at No. 8 in the world. She even won the WTA Comeback Player of the Year for her return to the top 10.
- At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Bencic beat tennis greats such as Jessica Pegula and others to reach the semifinals. She defeated Markéta Vondroušová in the final, to become the first Swiss woman to win the gold medal in singles. Bencic also won silver in the women’s doubles by teaming up with Viktorija Golubic.
- Bencic became the fifth player to reach two finals at the same Olympic event since tennis returned at the Games in 1988, joining Serena and Venus Williams, Andy Murray and Nicolas Massu.
Prize Money Earnings
Belinda Bencic has so far won $ 8,786,551, in career prize money. from her participation in different championships.
Endorsements and Sponsors
- Belinda Bencic’s clothing and footwear on the court have all been sponsored by Adidas since 2011.
- Bencic has been endorsed by Yonex for racquets since turning professional and has used the Yonex EZONE 100 racquet throughout her professional career.
- In 2015, Bencic signed a ‘top-to-toe’ endorsement deal with Yonex, which meant that they will now supply even clothing and footwear for matches along with tennis racquets.
- In 2018, upon her return to professional tennis after a long injury layoff, Bencic became endorsed by Nike for clothing and footwear.
- Her other endorsements include shopping brands Mood, Rolex, Roland, Cornercard and Miele.
- She is also sponsored by nutrition brand Hugi Pro Sport and Update Fitness.
Net Worth
To date, she has an estimated net worth of $5 million.
Trivia
- In 2020, Bencic donated money for every double fault she committed during the first few tournaments of the year. The donation went to those affected by the Australian bushfires
- Belinda Bencic has been in a relationship with her personal trainer, Martin Hromkovic since November 2018.
- Belinda’s win at the Tokyo Olympics was Switzerland’s third tennis gold in history, with Marc Rosset having won the top prize at Barcelona 1992 and Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka together winning the doubles event at Beijing 2008.
