The tennis year 2025 is drawing to a close. Expert Heinz Günthardt analyzes the state of Swiss tennis for blue News.
blue News summarizes for you
- Belinda Bencic delivers at a high level after her maternity leave. Expert Heinz Günthardt believes she is capable of winning a Grand Slam tournament.
- From the outside, things look less rosy for the men. No Swiss is in the top 100 of the world rankings.
- Is Swiss men's tennis in crisis? Günthardt provides the answers in the video above.
"Switzerland's success as a tennis nation over the last 30 years is actually statistically impossible," says Heinz Günthardt in an interview with blue News. What does he mean? For years, Switzerland was at the forefront of men's tennis. Thanks to Roger Federer, but also Stan Wawrinka. Martina Hingis was the big name in women's tennis for a long time, but in recent years Belinda Bencic has provided the biggest highlights. And she still does. "What she has achieved after her maternity leave is enormous," says Günthardt, looking ahead to the coming year: "I hope she manages to win a Grand Slam." The team manager of the Swiss Fed Cup team is certain that she definitely has what it takes. This year, she made it to the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
Does Swiss men's tennis have a problem?
If you look at the world rankings, you will see that there is no Swiss player in the top 100 in the men's rankings. The 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka is the best-ranked Swiss at number 157. Leandro Riedi and Jérôme Kym, who caused a sensation as qualifiers at the US Open, have yet to make the breakthrough. Günthardt says: "They have underlined that they have the tennis to play with the best at the biggest tournaments, on the biggest courts." The 23-year-old Riedi is world number 178, while the 22-year-old Kym is ranked 10 places behind him.
Dominic Stricker's star has also shone brighter; the 23-year-old is now only number 367 in the world. And then there's Henry Bernet, who won the Australian Open 2025 in the juniors and made his debut in the main draw of an ATP tournament at the Swiss Indoors in October thanks to a wild card. Günthardt has high hopes for him: "Bernet showed in Basel that he can make the transition to the pros faster than other juniors." The 19-year-old is currently still ranked outside the top 500.
The big question remains: Why are young Swiss players finding it so difficult to make the final step? Is Swiss tennis ailing or are expectations simply too high in this country? The answers can be found in the video at the beginning of the article.
