LONDON (AP) — 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 U.S. 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 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 will play the winner between seventh-seeded Mirra Andreeva and No. 10 Emma Navarro, who were playing on Centre Court later. 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 later, No. 8 Iga Swiatek was playing Clara Tauson and No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova faced Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
