Belinda Bencic advanced to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal — 11 years after her All England Club debut — by beating 18th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (4), 6-4 on Monday.
Bencic, who had lost in the fourth round on three previous occasions, failed to convert five match points while serving at 5-3 in the second set. But on the sixth one, Alexandrova sent a forehand long on No. 1 Court.
“For you guys it was entertaining,” Bencic said about that marathon game at 5-3, where Alexandrova finally converted her fourth break point to stay in the match. “For me it was a big stress.”
The 28-year-old Bencic’s best result at a Grand Slam was reaching the semifinals at the 2019 US Open, where she also reached the quarters on two other occasions.
The Tokyo Olympic champion, playing at Wimbledon for the ninth time, had not been into the last eight at any of the other three majors, until now.
“I always got stuck in the fourth round (at Wimbledon),” Bencic said in an on-court interview. “So it was so important for me today to be able to kind of break through to the quarterfinal.”
Bencic missed last year’s grass-court Grand Slam tournament while she was on maternity leave, having given birth to her first child — a daughter named Bella — in April 2024.
She was one of nine mothers in the Wimbledon singles draw, but the only one to reach the round of 16.
Bencic said traveling with a child on tour is still relatively easy while Bella is so young, but that she’s spending a lot more time taking pictures when she’s at tournaments.
“I’m juggling it like every mom does,” Bencic said. “So, props to the moms.”
Bencic became the fourth different woman from Switzerland to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals in the Open era, joining Martina Hingis (3 times), Timea Bacsinszky (2015) and Viktorija Golubic (2021).
She will play the winner between seventh-seeded Mirra Andreeva and No. 10 Emma Navarro. Navarro beat defending champion Barbora Krejcikova in the previous round, ensuring there will be a first-time winner of the women’s tournament this year.
Also Monday, No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia defeated Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 7-5, 7-5 to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
No. 8 Iga Swiatek was set to play Clara Tauson later on No. 1 Court.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
