In April 2024, Belinda Bencic gave birth to daughter Bella.
Soon after, the resident of Wollerau, a small town in the Swiss alps near Lake Zurich where Roger Federer also owns a home, began going to physiotherapy. She methodically worked on exercises to strengthen her pelvic floor. Regaining her fitness was an early goal and by early June, she felt ready to pick up a racquet for a five-minute hit.
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“I would increase every day by just a little bit,” Bencic recalled, replicating that slow and steady approach in the gym and recognising her body’s limits as she chartered a path back from childbirth.
Bencic became grateful for the muscle memory formed by her years of dedication to a sport she started aged three under the tutelage of Melanie Molitor, mother of five-time Australian Open champion Martina Hingis.
In late October, ready to trade the practice court for match time, test her body and to see how she’d manage the logistics of traveling with a baby, Bencic travelled to an ITF Challenger in Hamburg. There, the former world No. 4 earned a sole win, banking $935 in prize money, a stark contrast to the $284,000 earned at the 2023 US Open 14 months earlier, her last tournament before maternity leave.
After Hamburg, Bencic competed in another Challenger in Petange, Luxembourg, triumphing twice, before making a successful return to Billie Jean King Cup, earning a singles and doubles victory to help Switzerland defeat Serbia. A month later in early December, the right-hander earned four consecutive wins at a Challenger in Angers, France to reach the final, in which she stretched Alycia Parks to three sets.
Two weeks later, perhaps against the odds, Bencic boarded a flight to Sydney, arriving in time to schedule a Christmas Day practice with her United Cup teammates.
“If we wouldn't have gotten into the United Cup as Team Switzerland, I would even consider maybe not even playing here in Australia just yet, because I just would think it's too early,” the 27-year-old said on Friday after Naomi Osaka retired injured from their third-round encounter after Bencic won the first set 7-6(3).
“But I'm happy we came.”
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Travelling with Bella, who turns nine months old next week, the Swiss star has reached the fourth round of Australian Open 2025, surpassing any projections she had for her own comeback.
Competing at the United Cup and fighting through Adelaide International qualifying helped Bencic find rhythm and confidence at the year’s first major. In Melbourne, she’s yet to drop a set, stunning 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko in the first round and backing up that victory with a second-round win over Suzan Lamens before Osaka’s retirement on Friday.
“I'm just really taking it match by match and being, like, appreciative, that I'm able to play against top players and kind of testing myself,” said Bencic, the Tokyo 2020 women’s singles gold medallist. “Really happy with how the comeback is going.”
Her journey to the fourth round mirrors career-best runs at Melbourne Park. In 2023, she lost to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka, and 2016, she was defeated by Maria Sharapova. On Sunday, she'll tackle third seed Coco Gauff whose matches she watched while on maternity leave, and isn't putting pressure on herself to deliver.
“Before, I would always have more expectations if I would have bigger results, but it's not the case here, I don't even have to remind myself, I think my body just tells me,” she said, acknowledging that aspects of her physicality including movement and reaction time are not yet at 100 per cent.
“I'm just happy with every match I get to play … I feel like I can improve and get better.”
“It's not really about winning right now – it’s really about improving myself and getting back there to be able to play the biggest tournaments again and be up there ranking-wise.”
Still, she’s ready to battle the American world No. 3, one of the tournament’s favourites, and carries a 1-1 head-to-head record into Sunday’s meeting.
“Of course it's about winning, that’s why we're here,” Bencic said. “But at this moment, I still like [to] call this a little bit [of] a test, I came here to see how it's going to be.”
“I didn't expect to be in the fourth round, so I'm not going to change my expectations based on the result here.”