Belinda Bencic’s wrist surgery: Can she bounce back in two months?

Belinda Bencic has wrist surgery and will miss several months.. Will she bounce back in two months or need ‘protected ranking’?

Players know that losing and winning comes with the territory. But, there are also injuries. It just matters how long and how severe. Belinda Bencic is wondering that now.

It all started in June during Day 3 at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships.

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She was having wrist issues a few months before and came back on tour to win during Day 3 in straight sets over Tsvetana Pironkova on Centre Court. The next day she was on court with American qualifier Julia Boserup, ranked No. 225, down a set she had to retire because of the pain.

"“I don’t know what it is yet…It’s nothing too serious. I think I have to get it checked”, Bencic had said."

She’d had lower back ailments as well but many know that the wrist may be one of the things to go with a professional tennis player. She dealt with the off and on discomfort and went through the hard court season basically with opening round losses entering the Western and Southern and the Connecticut Open.

Treatment did help and she held out for the 2016 US Open where she could only complete the 3rd round. During the ‘Asian Swing’ things didn’t get remarkably better and more time was taken off. Belinda had began to feel disgusted at the end of 2016 and had multiple ailments as lower back, coccyx and the wrist injuries.

"Bencic said “This year has definitely been the worst…I just want to forget it and move on”."

She moved on but this 2017 season most of her play has ended in the first rounds of the tournaments. She’d even entered an ITF event in her home country of Switzerland, but lost in the first round to Carina Witthoeft. Bencic had only proved victorious in one single match the entire season so far along with winning a match in a Fed Cup tie.

Time expired for Bencic to just tend to the injury as soon as possible.

"With her ranking having slipped to the mid 100s, she had put a post on her Facebook page saying “…fixing this problem now would help extend and enhance my career…” She had further said on her Facebook page that “Hi guys, unfortunately I had to have surgery on my left wrist last week so I will be out of action for a few months”."

It’s understandable that Bencic was nervous having the surgery. She is in good company because so many tennis players have had wrist ailments and operations, many with good results and many needing prolonged rehab. Brit former No. 1 player Laura Robson has had wrist injuries since 2013 with the left wrist and had undergone wrist surgery with constant rehab and an occasional setback. Presently, Robson is still resting and rehabbing. Juan Martin delPotro has had a history of wrist ailments and surgeries on both wrist. He has had his surgical procedures at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota by Dr. Richard Berger, an orthopedist. Robson has also used the services of Del Potro’s surgeon and remains optimistic. Other players with wrist ailments are Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to name a few.

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But Belinda Bencic has mentioned that she will miss the two grand slams – The French Open and Wimbledon. She hasn’t mentioned the possible need for the ‘protected ranking’ that many players get assigned to so that they may keep in place their ranking until they’re able to play again. The tennis community is hopeful that it will be only a few months until we see the ‘Swiss Miss’ back on the courts having fun, playing great tennis and entertaining the tennis community again.