#BelindaBencic finally shrugged off her rest and returned onto tennis’ biggest stages as the Swiss proved her credentials once more, showing the world that she can still challenge the best in the business. Roaring back into the world’s top-40, the youngster is now targetting a return to where she truly belongs: the top-10, a familiar place she used to be in 2016.
Although it was a relatively decent season, Bencic’s win-loss record does not look that impressive on paper. Owning a 27-21 (.563) win-loss record throughout the year, the Swiss miss surprisingly had a negative record in WTA main draw matches alone, posing a disappointing 14-15 win-loss record in that aspect. Nonetheless, Bencic claimed two top-10 wins but also suffered six losses against players ranked outside the top-100.
High Points of the Season
Bencic started her year at the Hopman Cup after carrying the momentum from a strong end to 2017. She upset the higher-ranked Naomi Osaka, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Coco Vandeweghe to go unbeaten during the Round Robin stage but lost to the resurgent Angelique Kerber in a high-quality final.
The Swiss looked to go deep at the Australian Open, although her chances seemed slim when she was drawn to face fifth seed and last year’s finalist Venus Williams in a blockbuster opening round. Nonetheless, she defied the odds and upset the legendary American in straight sets.
Bencic had to wait until Wimbledon for another good run. Facing world number six Caroline Garcia in the opening round, the youngster was able to find some of her best tennis and conquered the Frenchwoman in straight sets amidst her underdog title. She followed it up by saving match points to vanquish Alison Riske in the second round and upsetting Carla Suarez Navarro to reach the second week in a Major for the first time since 2016.
Bencic was a late entry to the entry list of the BGL Luxembourg Open hence she was pushed into the qualifying competition as the top seed. Easing past three straightforward matches which acted as a warm-up to the main draw competition for her, Bencic stormed to the final after getting past tough challenges from the in-form Dayana Yastremska and ninth seed Kirsten Flipkens. It was a tightly-contested final but Bencic still fell short to world number nine Julia Goerges in the high-quality affair.
Ending her season later than usual, Bencic went to the States to compete in a couple lower-tier ITF events. She went to the ITF 80k event in Tyler and reached the semifinals before being upset by teenage sensation Whitney Osuigwe. She made amendments for her loss in the following week; strolling to the title in Las Vegas, her first of any kind this year.
Low Points of the Season
After Bencic’s excellent start to the new season, many expectations were weighed on her. The Swiss claimed a fantastic victory over Venus Williams but was stunned in the second round by the unheralded Luksika Kumkhum in straight sets, kickstarting a four-match losing streak.
Bencic was handed the burden of leading the Swiss Fed Cup team against the mighty Czech Republic in their Fed Cup World Group first round encounter but was unable to pick up a win as she was handed two consecutive losses to end the weekend in the worst way possible.
Her struggles continued at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, where she lost to Veronica Cepede Royg in three sets but Bencic finally managed to snap her losing streak against Timea Babos having saved a match point. However, that was just a mere consolation victory as she quickly lost to sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko in a tight second-round match.
Bencic’s only clay event this year was Roland Garros as she opted to skip the majority of the clay season due to a foot injury. She saved multiple match points to get past qualifier Deborah Chiesa in the opening round but failed to put up a tough fight against Magdalena Rybarikova in her next match.
Bencic’s poor form started to take a toll on her confidence — crashing out to world number 170 Veronika Kudermetova in the second round of the Libema Open before retiring injured against world number 348 Abigail Tere Apisah in an ITF 100k event in Ilkley.
The Swiss struggled on hard courts after her impressive run at Wimbledon. Although she made the last eight at the Citi Open, she failed to convert match points against Andrea Petkovic and blew a huge opportunity to mount a deeper run. Bencic was then upset by home favourite Christina McHale in the first round of qualifying at the Western and Southern Open.
Bencic originally crashed out of the Connecticut Open in the qualifiers but received a lucky-loser spot and made the quarterfinals but was completely overpowered by the eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets. A disappointing first-round exit at the US Open to Aliaksandra Sasnovich ended the lacklustre North American hard-court swing for the Swiss.
The Asian Swing was another poor one for Bencic — who went winless during this stretch of tournaments. However, thinking from another viewpoint, she had to deal with some tough draws handed to her. Bencic fell to two-time Major champion Garbine Muguruza in the opening round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open before first-round losses to Kiki Bertens and Caroline Wozniacki followed in Wuhan and Beijing respectively.
Her woes continued to bother her at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz when Bencic opted to return to Europe for some indoor hard-court tournaments, and her losing streak was extended to six consecutive matches when she fell to Vera Lapko with a bizarre 6-1, 1-6, 0-6 scoreline.
Bencic’s season ended with a tough three-set loss to eventual champion Peng Shuai at the Oracle Challenger Series event in Houston, as part of the WTA 125k series. Her decision to not compete at the Taipei and Mumbai events, and instead participate in lower-tier ITF events caused her ranking to experience a slight drop, but she still managed to end the year inside the top-50.
Season Grade: B-
It was not an entirely bad season for Bencic, who showed patches of excellence throughout the year but not consistently. Returning into the second week of a Grand Slam coupled alongside reaching the first WTA final of her comeback, Bencic can be said to be gradually returning to her best.
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