Wimbledon: Kerber opponent Belinda Bencic 3-0 in the head

Belinda Bencic, the long injured Swiss player, will play Angelique Kerber in the round of 16 in Wimbledon on Monday – and has only good memories of the German.

By Jörg Allmeroth from London

On Thursday she was balancing hard on the precipice of her elimination, it was a flirt with the Wimbledon knockout against the American Alison Riske.

It wasn’t quite as exciting for Belinda Bencic in the third round, but there were some trembling moments before the happy end, before the not necessarily expected entry into the round of 16 at the world’s most famous tennis tournament: Bencic first played Carla Suarez-Navarro from Spain with playful ease, high concentration and mighty determination, but in the end she needed above all fighting spirit and willpower to fight her way through to a 6:1, 7:6 victory after an intermediate low. “I’m terribly relieved. In the end I made it hard on myself, but I am proud that I came back again,” said Bencic, who sank to her knees with joy after the moment of triumph and then sent a prayer to the blue sky.

For the second time in her young career, Bencic advanced to the round of the last 16 Open English Championships, in 2015 she had failed in the round of the last 16 against Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. On Monday, she will face former world number one Angelique Kerber (Germany), against whom she has won all three matches so far, most recently in the 2016 Fed Cup duel in Leipzig. “She’s a gambler now, of course, acting on a different level. But I’m looking forward to the game,” Bencic said. Meanwhile, the death of the favourites in the women’s competition continued because the current front woman Simona Halep also had to say goodbye to the Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wie from Wimbledon after a three-set thriller. Of the top ten, only the Czech Karolina Pliskova remains in the tournament.

Bencic was the clear dominating, driving force in this game. In the scorching heat on Court 12, where 35 degrees were measured, the 21-year-old immediately pressed, took the initiative and pushed Suarez-Navarro into the defense. Against Bencic’s precision, against her good mixture of control and risk, there was little the Spaniard could do, within a few minutes the regained strength Swiss had gained a courageous advantage. And after barely more than 20 minutes, the first run was over with 6:1 for Bencic – it was a performance without mistakes and blame until then.

Encouraged by their new coach Vladimir Platenik and her family, Bencic continued seamlessly in the second act where she had continued in the starting phase of this duel. Everything went too fast for Suarez-Navarro, Bencic’s storm and urge, her power strokes, her self-confident points. In no time it was 3-0 for Bencic, who seemed to have almost reached the home stretch of the match. But suddenly the 23-year-old became too cautious, too timid, too hesitant in her actions, just as if she only wanted to manage her lead. Suarez-Navarro used this to a furious chase to catch up, in the course of which she even had a set point to equalize 1-1. Bencic saved himself rather happily into the tiebreak, but found more courage and courage at the moment of probation. “I wanted to finish the match and not in a third set,” she said later.

The advance to the last sixteen is also the first major success factor for Bencic and their new coach Vladimir Platenik. The Czech had previously trained Dominika Cibulkova and Daria Kasatkina among others and had also worked at the academy of Hingis mother Melanie Molitor in Wollerau. “For me it’s all about Belinda finding the fun back in the game,” says Platenik, “then the victories will come back.” Just like now in Wimbledon, where the journey through the tournament can take a little longer, even beyond the round of 16.