Bencic's Progress Right On Schedule

Posted: Dec 02, 2015

Second season syndrome is an ailment familiar to most sports fans. As the name suggests, it afflicts those sports men, women and teams that struggle to follow up a breakthrough season or notable triumph.

Last year, 40 wins (two of them against Top 10 opponents), a maiden WTA final and a run to the last eight the US Open confirmed that Belinda Bencic’s transformation from wunderkind to elite player was well ahead of schedule.

But, having ascended the WTA ranks so rapidly, how would she respond to the spotlight focused on its summit? How would her cerebral game stand up to further examination from the biggest hitters? And how would she handle the prospect of defending that not inconsiderable haul of ranking points?

Well, rather impressively, as it turns out.

Given her well-publicized ties with Martina Hingis, it was perhaps unsurprising that her game clicked into gear on the grass, following a runner-up finish in ‘s-Hertogenbosch with a title in Eastbourne and then a fourth round run at Wimbledon.

The 18-year-old was even more impressive on the cement, picking up further silverware – and wins over Serena Williams and Simona Halep – in Toronto, before reaching the final in Tokyo as her knocking on the door of the Top 10 became ever louder.

However, despite the clamor from fans and media for immediate success, Bencic knows the path to the top is rarely a smooth one.

“The media, public and fans put higher expectations on me. I lost a couple of times in the first round and they were already talking about a crisis, but I knew what I needed to do,” Bencic said in a recent interview with Tages Anzeiger. “There are periods when things don’t go perfectly, but on grass I started very well and from then I had a lot of confidence.

“It takes some time to feel this confidence in your tennis. And with one or two losses you can lose it quickly.”

The upside of a slow start last time around is that Bencic has relatively few points to defend in the first half of 2016, giving her a golden opportunity to break into the Top 10 – she is currently 690 points behind No.10-ranked Angelique Kerber.

“It would better if expectations were not so high. I need to back up the things I did well this season. I’ve nothing to defend at the beginning of the year so I can get a lot of points. The road to winning a Slam is still long one. In a Slam you need to win seven matches against the best players, so we’ll see.”

Before embarking on the next stage of her journey, the Swiss indulged in some well-deserved rest and relaxation in Dubai and the Maldives alongside fellow young prospect Kristina Mladenovic, debunking the myth that there is no place for friends on tour.

However, such is the level of competition at the top, the two have not been taking it easy on their travels. “We’ve not been lazy, almost every day we have been on the court and we have been running too. We needed to practice, I don’t know how other athletes do but we can’t live without it.”