Belinda Bencic leading race to be the next big thing

Maria Sharapova was the most recent teenager to win a major title at Wimbledon 12 years ago. Is this Swiss miss next?

Switzerland's Belinda Bencic. Picture: AFP

The days when phenomenal adolescent players used to power their way to grand-slam titles in the women’s game had seemed consigned to history.

Maria Sharapova was the most recent teenager to win a major title at Wimbledon 12 years ago and until Garbine Muguruza struck a blow for relative youth by winning last month’s French Open title at the age of 22, it seemed that experience was the most important ingredient required to win a grand-slam title.

However, youth may seize its chance as Belinda Bencic will today become Wimbledon’s first teenaged top-ten female seed for seven years. Not that the newest “Swiss Miss” and the protegee of Martina Hingis, the former Wimbledon champion, is putting herself under any pressure to cause a sensation.

Bencic knows that the pressure of expectation is the biggest hazard to emergent talent and she is aware that time is very much on her side. Naturally, she was disappointed in the fading light of yesterday evening to lose in the second round of her title defence at Eastbourne’s Aegon International. Yet she did not view defeat as a cataclysmic disaster and accepted that it is all part of her tennis education.

“I didn’t come here thinking I had to win the title again,” said Bencic, who was beaten 7-6, 7-6 by another former champion of Devonshire Park, the experienced and distinctly in-form Russian, Elena Vesnina, who was too strong for Britain’s Heather Watson in the opening round.

“There are no deadlines or targets for me, in terms of achieving certain rankings or accomplishing things in the game,” Bencic said. “I am very calm in the knowledge that I have a lot of years to go in this sport.

“Sure, it would be good to have good results now but the important thing at my age is I can keep improving and keep learning. It’s not like throughout the next two or three years, I really have to rush. The thing that has been stressed to me is I can be relaxed about my progress.”

Vesnina is on a resurgent run of form after dropping out of the world’s top 100 for the first time in a decade last year. And Bencic, her right thigh heavily strapped having been forced to retire after slipping on the wet grass at last week’s event in Birmingham, is still recapturing her feel and confidence.

“I have had a frustrating spring and could not play for two months because of a back injury that meant I missed all the European clay-court season. So my honest expectation wasn’t about defending the Eastbourne title. The real thing that is disappointing me at the moment is I didn’t get matches in, which is what I need before Wimbledon.”

A fully-fit Bencic is a fearsome grass-court competitor. She decided at the age of 11 that it was her favoured surface when she trod the turf for the first time in an under-14 event in Germany, and despite being three years younger than most of her opponents she reached the quarter-finals at the first attempt.

“I love the way the game is played on grass,” she said. ” I always have done, since that first ever match. My thoughts that day were: ‘This is what I was born to do.’ I like the way the balls bounce, coming through fast and low. I think that suits my game that is based on a strong serve and good returns. You can play with a lot of variety on grass, you can use touch and the surface will help.”

She made her debut in the Swiss Fed Cup team four years ago and in 2013 won the Wimbledon junior title just a month after also claiming the girls’ singles trophy at the French Open. Wins against Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska (in last year’s Eastbourne final), Simona Halep, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki demonstrate that Bencic can battle with the leading lights.

Since the age of seven, Bencic has been guided towards tennis stardom by Hingis’s mother, Melanie Molitor, and comparisons between the two players are natural. “Of course Martina is a massive influence on me, it stands to reason,” the 19-year-old said. “Her mother taught her tennis and she taught me the same. And in some respects I copied her game but as I get a little older I am now developing my own style, which is a little bit different.

“I learn from everyone. I watch Serena’s serve, I watch Halep’s athleticism and I try to pick up on some of the big forehands like that belonging to Ivanovic. Now Martina and I play the same tournaments, we talk more than ever. We analyse and she gives me insight into some of the opponents she has played.”

Bencic will regroup and head to Wimbledon to get some solid practice days. She reached the third round on her debut in 2014 and last year went a step further. And while she believes one day that she will win the tournament she values above all others, she remains insistent there is no rush.

The Times