A bitter defeat for the Swiss tennis players in the Billie Jean King Cup: they lost by a wafer-thin 2:3 to the Czech Republic in Biel and will therefore play against relegation in mid-November.
11.04.2026, 15:42
11.04.2026, 22:02
SDA
It could - once again - have been Belinda Bencic's Billie Jean King Cup match. The Swiss team leader became a marathon woman on Friday and Saturday - but without a happy ending. In Saturday's singles, the world number 11 could have won the decisive third point, but she lost to Linda Noskova, who was ranked three positions lower, 3:6, 6:3, 6:7 (9:11) after almost two and a half hours. In the tiebreak of the third set, Bencic had a total of three match points at 6:5, 7:6 and 8:7.
The 2021 Olympic champion had nothing to blame herself for. The 21-year-old Czech, who was one of the rising stars of last season, served superbly on two match points and could perhaps have risked a little more on a passing ball.
Eight hours on the court
Even before the start of the singles, the 29-year-old from eastern Switzerland had five and a half hours of tennis in her legs from her victories on Friday against Marie Bouzkova (WTA 24) and in the doubles alongside Viktorija Golubic to open the program on Saturday - both also in three sets. Her opponent Noskova, on the other hand, had taken a break in the doubles.
This meant that everything was open again before the final singles match, and luck was not in Viktorija Golubic's (WTA 79) favor after her hard-fought success in the doubles. She lost to Bouzkova 6:7 (4:7) 3:6 after another entertaining and attractive match.
Czech Republic's greater breadth
In the end, the greater breadth of the Czech team probably paid off after all, as Noskova and Bouzkova were a little fresher in the decisive singles matches. Bencic and Golubic, on the other hand, each played two singles matches and the doubles.
Nevertheless, very little was missing and captain Heinz Günthardt's team would be playing for their second Billie Jean King Cup title since 2022 in Shenzhen in mid-September. Instead, they will now face relegation in a play-off in mid-November.
Nevertheless, the captain was unreservedly proud of his team, which had brought one of the best teams in the world to the brink of defeat. "Apart from the one last ball, it was a perfect week," he said.
