Wimbledon, England – Belinda Bensik never stopped smiling.
From the moment she secured match points in her second tiebreak of the day, she was no. 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) No. He won a victory over seven-seeded Mira Andriva.
“It’s crazy, it’s incredible, it makes your dreams come true,” said the sparkling Bensik as the seductive crowd looked at the center court. “I tried not to think about it at match points. I have no words. I’m very happy. It was the second semi-final of the overall Grand Slam and my first slam at Wimbledon.
For the unseeded Vensik, the two weeks were unlikely, just after an overall unlikely season. Once ranked fourth in singles at the 2020 Olympics, the gold medalist announced that she would become pregnant in November 2023 and be on the sidelines indefinitely. After giving birth to her daughter Bella in April 2024, she returned to the competition at the end of the year. She initially played mostly in small ITF-level events, but returned to the WTA Tour in January.
Bencic reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and surpassed his expectations early by winning the title at the 500th level Abu Dhabi Open in February. However, she was not exactly optimistic as the play progressed at the All England club, as she had to withdraw from the French Open due to an injury and only played in one grass court match before Wimbledon.
However, throughout the five games, Bencic is barely stopped. The 28-year-old rattles off impressive victories after impressive victory. Next, she will face five-time major champion Iga Swiatek in the second semifinals of her career. Ranked outside the top 1000 at the start of her comeback from maternity leave, Bencic is expected to return to the top 20 in next week’s rankings.
“I’m very proud,” Vensik said Wednesday. “In fact, all my career, I didn’t say it much to myself, but after having Bella, I really say it to myself every day, and I think it changes a lot. But of course I have to say I can’t do it without my great family and my great team.
“It’s beautiful to create these memories together, and obviously playing great is such a great thing, but for me it’s a bonus. I’m generally really happy to be able to play again.”
After major champions Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams returned to play after giving birth in 2017 and 2018, they appeared to be guiding around something like a baby boom on the WTA Tour. The WTA even introduced new maternity leave benefits earlier this year. This year there were nine mothers in the main draw at Wimbledon.
However, there is still physical demand for pregnancy, and the non-stop nature of the tour presents a unique challenge. Parents on tour must take their own help to provide childcare during long days on-site. It’s expensive, tough and can be emotionally taxed.
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that players will be able to return to the level they reached before maternity leave. She reached four major finals on her return home, but Williams, 35, is notoriously unable to win another slam title. Four-time major champion Naomi Osaka has not been able to surpass three rounds at Slam since returning at the start of last season. Fellow former major champions Angelique Carver and Petra Kvitova made short returns before announcing their retirement from the sport. (Kvitova lost in the first round at Wimbledon last week and is set to officially leave following the US Open.)
Bencic was keenly aware of the struggles of others and the success of players like Elina Svitolina, who reached the major semi-finals and quarter-finals since the comeback, but always planned to return. She told ESPN that she started slowly after Bella’s birth.
Bencic knew that her husband, Martin Hromkovic, is also a fitness coach and travelling with her, she had some advantages. That means they don’t have to be apart during the season, and Bella was able to be with both parents. Her mom also volunteered to accompany them in some parts of the season.
Although Bensik felt lively and healthy during her first ITF tournament in October, she still didn’t know how she would do it or what goals to set for herself.
“It was a little step in the darkness,” Vensik told ESPN. “I really didn’t know exactly what to expect. I was hoping to reach the same level again… I was a little worried that tennis had probably moved a little further and was still even faster.
Apart from lingering questions and self-doubt about the state of her game, she was no longer even sure how she would pack for the tournament. Since babies need a lot of gear, Bensik has noticed that he is constantly checking the weather at his impending destination to determine what clothes Bella needs. When the 2025 season began and knew that Bensik would spend at least a month in Australia, she tried to predict how much Bella would grow and whether they could get the milk available in Switzerland, the other side of the world. (They couldn’t, so they were forced to stock up as much as they could.)
And of course there was a washing problem. That’s something every parent of a young child knows well. They try to stay in a house with a washing machine as much as possible.
“It’s definitely the most difficult logistics,” Vensik told ESPN. “You really need to think about everything. It feels like you don’t have anything lately, but I’m still overpacking it all the time. It’s tricky, but everything is really viable even if you forget something.”
It was a juggling act behind the scenes, but Bensik made it all easy in the 16 rounds in Melbourne, beating Jelena Ostapenko in the opener and pushing Coco Gouf to three sets in the fourth round. Just a few weeks later, she won the title in Abu Dhabi. This includes the decisive victory over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rivakina in the semi-finals. She topped Ashlyn Kruger in the final, then carried Bella onto the court and took a photo with her and the trophy.
“It was such a lovely, and a very special moment,” Vensik said. “She was with Martin in the media center for most games, and he put her in his career and beat her to the third set. I think he felt I needed support. I saw them. It was really amazing.
Bella is often discovered in Bencic practices. During an early morning session at Indian Wells in March, Bella was tied to Martin’s chest, standing by the fence, watching her serve’s Bensik work.
But the comebacks weren’t all smooth. Bencic has paused pre-season momentum, unable to participate in the French Open due to an arm injury. She returned last month at the Bad Homburg Open, but lost 6-1, 6-2 in her first round match against Ekaterina Alexandrova. The two were facing each other again in Monday’s 16th round, but this time the Bensik made No. 18 seed Alexandrova better in a straight set.
Despite that victory, Bensik, who never made any progress past the fourth round at Wimbledon, was about to reach the second major semi-final of his youth career in the quarter-finals against 18-year-old genius Andreva. But in front of the crowd, including Queen Camilla, Benshik remained calm and calm. Even in the most tense moments of an unprecedented closest match, Bensik was forced to make a more aggressive Andreva an expensive error. In the tiebreaker that appeared when Andreva was her most vulnerable, Bensik guided her experience and stuck to the game plan. That worked.
“It’s sad that I lost, but today I felt like she was playing well,” a disappointed Andreva said after the match.
On Thursday, Bencic, who was removed from her biggest win at Earl England Club in one day, has the opportunity to reach her first major final. She was beaten only once in five meetings and lost in a recent clash in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2023, but she knows what she can do and is ready for the challenge. Swiatek, who praised Bencic’s return, seemed to expect an equally close match.
“It’s true, she has a game where she plays well on the grass here,” Sweet said Wednesday. “Yeah, I never doubt she’d be able to come back after pregnancy. She seems to be in good mood and she seems to be playing well.”
But wins and losses, Bensik knows that the outcome on the tennis court no longer determines her happiness, so it doesn’t change much about her daily life and what’s most important to her.
“Previously, tennis was the most important thing for me and was the center of my life,” Vensik told ESPN. “I was always worried about how I was playing and who was going to play. Tennis was constantly in my mind. And now I sometimes fall asleep and forget that the next day I have to play a game.
