Belinda Bencic seems like she played on the WTA tour for decades, left for a bit, and then came back recently. In reality, she is still just 28 years old, and the former No. 4 took a little over a year off after giving birth. She returned to the WTA in December 2024.
She has never had much success at Wimbledon, however. Her best showing was reaching the fourth round on three separate occasions. There was nothing to imply that entering this year's grass-court major that she would make a deep run in the tournament.
The odd part is that the way she has played seems well-suited for grass. She has an efficient and powerful serve, strikes her forehand with pace, and has a bombastic backhand. Instead of relative failure at Wimbledon, she has played like a multi-time winner.
Belinda Bencic defeats Mirra Andreeva to move into semifinals at Wimbledon 2025
Her quarterfinal opponent is one of the best rising players on the tour. Mirra Andreeva reached the top 10 in 2025 and has won two Masters 1000 events. She doesn't seem new anymore, but simply a player fans will get used to seeing in the late stages of Grand Slams.
In an evenly played first set, which Bencic won 7-6(3), the Swiss player dictated far more points and kept running Andreeva from side to side. Instead of an overhand forehand, Andreeva was forced to keep slicing her forehand to keep the ball in play. It was miraculous that the set was so tight.
The second set was lining up the same way, and Bencic got a break that was seemingly all she needed to take the match and move into the semifinals. Instead, while serving for the match, Andreeva got the break and then held to force Bencic to serve to create a second-set tie-break.
Bencic appeared to become slightly more frustrated with her situation, even though she was leading the match, and she also broke a toenail, though she refused treatment. Perhaps she was singularly focused on trying to finish the match, or perhaps she was tightening up.
She did manage to hold, however, and got a minibreak a couple of times early in the tie-break. She grew her lead to 4-1 as Andreeva began trying to hit a more powerful forehand, which turned into unforced errors. Because of this, Bencic took the tie-break fairly easily 7-2.
Bencic will next face Iga Swiatek in the semifinals on Thursday. Let's hope the Swiss player gets her toenail fixed before then.