Tennis star travels the world with her daughter Belinda Bencic: Being a mother gives her strength

Belinda Bencic starts her second tennis career with a win. But her first priority today is her almost one-year-old daughter. The Swiss Olympic champion still has a lot planned in her new role, as she reveals to SPORTLERIN magazine.

At first there was a brief moment of hesitation, perhaps even disbelief. Belinda Bencic first put her hands over her eyes, then briefly on her head. A smile crossed her face and she looked towards the stands. To where her partner Martin Hromkovic was standing with their little daughter Bella. "When the little girl suddenly appeared in the stands in the third set, it gave me strength," Bencic said a few days later in a video call from Dubai.

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Belinda Bencic had done it. Less than four months after her return to the WTA Tour, the player from eastern Switzerland won another title at the beginning of February. At the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi, she beat American Ashlyn Krueger in three sets in the final to celebrate her ninth title on the professional tour. In the sixth tournament after her comeback last November and just ten months after the birth of her daughter, she once again held a trophy in her hands. The first mother since Ukraine's Elina Svitolina in Strasbourg in May 2023.

It is no longer a rarity for female tennis players to continue winning matches and titles after the birth of their children. And yet she didn't expect to win tournaments again so quickly. Speaking from Dubai, where she played her next tournament, Bencic said: "I was a bit surprised. But it was a special moment."

After the match, they took pictures with their daughter and the trophy on the court. It was a moment worth remembering for the mother and one day probably also for her daughter. Roger Federer, himself a father of four, sent his congratulations by text message. He was far from the only one.

Without false self-doubt

Belinda Bencic is not a woman who struggles with self-doubt. Even before her comeback, she had repeatedly said that she still felt anything but at the end of her career. In an interview with the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" in August, she said: "It remains a goal of mine to win a major tournament and to get the best out of it. I still have a few career years ahead of me. I worked too much and too hard in my childhood and youth for me to let go just yet." Bencic turned 28 in March. The German Angelique Kerber ended her career in Paris at 37. She had her best phase in the period that is now beginning for Bencic. She says: "I think there's still a lot in it for me too."

Belinda Bencic did not base her comeback solely on past or present competitors. She also cites track and field athlete Allyson Felix as a role model who inspired her. The American sprinter became the mother of a daughter in 2018. That didn't end her career, it just interrupted it. With 14 world championship titles, she is the most successful athlete ever at the World Athletics Championships - and with seven gold, three silver and one bronze medal, she is also the most successful athlete at the Olympic Games.

Belinda Bencic has not only become a mother in recent months, she has also grown up. The child star, who stormed into the quarter-finals at the US Open at the age of 17, bringing back memories of her role model Martina Hingis, has become a mature woman. At the time, "Blick" showed her in a photomontage as Lady Liberty, the Statue of Liberty. Nothing seemed impossible for her.

But the expectations also became a temporary burden for Bencic. Instead of victories, she suffered more and more injuries. Setback followed setback. The longer she had to wait for her definitive breakthrough, the greater the pressure and doubts that weighed on her. When she had to undergo wrist surgery in spring 2017, her career seemed to be in serious jeopardy. She dropped to 165th in the rankings. Her dominant father Ivan, a former ice hockey player who had encouraged and pushed her from an early age, seemed to become a problem. People close to Bencic came forward publicly and called on her to distance herself from him and replace the coaching staff.

Parents as a burden in tennis

The story is both evergreen and perennial, especially in tennis. Over-motivated and ambitious parents overwhelm their children with their expectations and become a burden. Monica Seles, Jelena Dokic, Mary Pierce, Mirjana Lucic, Jennifer Capriati or even Timea Bacsinszky - history is full of players who failed due to the pressure of their parents. André Agassi confessed after his career that his father and his father's expectations had driven him to hate the sport. The American had temporarily slipped into drugs before he got back on track. He only really enjoyed playing tennis in the second part of his career, when he played on his own initiative and not at the behest of his father.

Belinda Bencic does not belong in this category. She is bothered by the fact that she and her father are repeatedly associated with the examples mentioned. During an appearance on the Swiss television talk show "Gredig direkt" at the beginning of January, she spoke remarkably openly about her relationship with her father. "He was with me from the beginning, but over time it became a bit much. We gave each other space. But even if other coaches took on part of his role: I would never have got this far without him. I always thought it was a bit unfair that we were put close to these examples of other players. I am a person who could and can defend myself very well. I wanted to play tennis, I was never forced to do anything. I'm grateful to my father for pushing me at times. I needed that."

Both feet firmly on the ground

Now that Belinda is working with Brit Iain Hughes, Ivan Bencic is still one of the most important people in his daughter's life and is regularly out and about with her. The fact that he has managed to take a step back and allow his daughter to be independent deserves respect and recognition. But even more important than this partial detachment from her father was her own maturing process. Her appearance on the show "Gredig direkt" has earned Belinda Bencic a great deal of public respect. She presented herself as a self-confident yet grounded woman who has both feet firmly on the ground.

That was not always the case. Her former coach Dimitri Tursunov once said that Bencic had to stop being her own worst enemy. That was an exaggeration, of course. And yet the player from eastern Switzerland often stood in her own way, especially on the tennis court. Particularly in the early stages of her career, Bencic was often seen as an angry, quarrelling player who robbed herself of concentration. She says: "I have also made progress in this respect. But I will never be a completely calm player. I have that passion; that's me. And I'll never care whether I win or lose." Off the court, she is a completely different person. Calm and relaxed.

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The decision to have her first child at the age of 27 and to take a career break to do so was a conscious one that she made together with her partner Martin Hromkovic. "I know I still have a lot of time. I'm about halfway through my career today," says the woman from Eastern Switzerland. In an interview with the NZZ last August, she said: "I would like to have more children, maybe one or two more. But that will take time. I'm not planning to take a second pregnancy break from the tour. Many players who are approaching 30 suddenly feel under pressure because the biological clock is ticking. The fact that I'm already a mother takes some of the pressure off me in this respect too. But I'm taking my time to have more children until my career is over."

The big win in Tokyo

These are surprisingly sober words from a young woman who has long had a reputation for not always having her emotions under control. Bencic has gone through a process in recent years. She was undoubtedly helped by the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she won gold in the singles and silver in the doubles together with Viktorija Golubic. Olympic gold is now out of her reach. The medal was a great relief for Bencic. It reminds her that all the sacrifices and drops of sweat she had to endure in her youth were worth it.

It wasn't always like that. During the time when her career didn't seem to be progressing and the injuries increased, her doubts also grew. Is it really worth investing so much in the tennis dream? Bencic says: "For a moment, I no longer played tennis for myself, but for the public. During this phase, I lost my joy a little and also started to rebel." But it was her injury break that helped her regain her focus. "I realized how much tennis really means to me. Suddenly, I was also better at blocking out what the public thinks and says about me."

A new purpose in life

Now, during her maternity break, there were no more doubts for Belinda Bencic. Of course, she began to like the sedentary life at home. She unpacked her suitcases, which she had more or less lived out of since her youth, and did things that other women her age do. She met up with friends, began to cultivate hobbies and got used to life in her own four walls. Before her comeback, she said: "Getting used to it all again, the packing, the flying, the traveling until you get to the tournaments: it's probably not going to be easy. But the hardest thing will probably be being at home less again. I've gotten used to living like a normal person."

But now Belinda Bencic is back on the tour. The slight doubts that accompanied her comeback have been wiped away since her tournament win in Abu Dhabi. Thanks to this, she has already returned to the top 100 in the rankings. And Bencic is firmly convinced that the best time in her career still lies ahead of her. There are several examples of tennis mothers who have gone on to win major titles. Bencic says that the baby break was not just good for her head, but for her whole body. After years on the tour with hardly any breaks, she was able to really recover for once.

Nevertheless, nothing is the same as it was. Bencic no longer travels the tennis world alone, but with her daughter. She is supported by her mother and mother-in-law, who share the care of Bella. When she trains, she often simply takes the little girl onto the court with her. She is already almost as well-known and popular as her celebrity mother. The cameras in the stadiums are looking for the little girl.

But how does Belinda Bencic protect her daughter from the prying eyes of the public and the lenses of the cameras? "We agree that we shield Bella as much as possible. But she is now part of our lives and travels with us. We can't and don't want to hide her completely." Belinda Bencic now has a new center of life. It's no longer all about the yellow ball; the focus is on little Bella. The insight she has gained from this is as conclusive as it is liberating: "Tennis was my life and the sport is still very important to me. But today I know that there is more to life than just on the court. At the same time, I'm a little more relaxed and less tense about all the issues relating to my career. When I'm on the court, I concentrate 100 percent on the tennis. At the same time, I always look forward to going home afterwards and immersing myself in my new life." Today, she sees tennis more as a job.

But Belinda Bencic's purpose in life is now Bella.