It was ‘Belinda’s world’ two weeks ago at the United Cup, where Belinda Bencic was named the tournament’s MVP for her near-flawless performance in leading Switzerland to the final. Teammate Stan Wawrinka coined the phrase in honor of her 9-1 overall record at the event (5-0 in singles).
It was still Belinda’s world at the Australian Open, as the No. 10 seed got her campaign off to a flying start with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Katie Boulter. Bencic’s active singles winning streak now stands at 12 matches, tying the career-best tour-level streak that she set in 2019.
Australian Open: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Bencic has not lost a match since her 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Jasmine Paolini in last October’s Ningbo quarterfinals. Following that, she claimed her 10th career WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz title in Tokyo, then reached the last eight in Hong Kong. A left thigh injury forced her to withdraw ahead of her quarterfinal match (and thus did not snap the streak), and Bencic resumed her winning ways with her unbeaten United Cup campaign. That result enabled former No. 4 Bencic, who came back from maternity leave in October 2024, to return to the Top 10 in the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time since March 2023.
Between February and March 2019, Bencic also notched 12 straight wins with an unbeaten Billie Jean King Cup campaign followed by her third career title in Dubai and a semifinal run in Indian Wells — a streak ended by Angelique Kerber.
Bencic will have the chance to set a new career-best winning streak when she takes on either Daria Kasatkina or qualifier Nikola Bartunkova in the second round.
More to come…
