Bencic Challenged By Green Clay But Keeps Winning At Charleston Open

Belinda Bencic
Belinda Bencic (photo: Charleston Tennis LLC)

CHARLESTON, S.C./WASHINGTON, April 3, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)

Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic will be the first to admit that she doesn’t consider herself the best mover on clay, a surface that rewards those who master how to slide well on the gritty surface.

Belinda Bencic

Belinda Bencic (photo: Charleston Tennis LLC)

However, as she’s proven from her past performances at the Credit One Charleston Open, which includes winning the 2022 WTA 500 title on green clay in the South Carolina Lowcountry, the World No. 12 Bencic has shown she’s aggressive enough in her style of play that she can win matches without needing to rely on her novice sliding skills.

“I’m still trying as best as I can, but it’s still a challenge for me,” Bencic said after defeating Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine in three sets Tuesday night on Credit One Stadium. It was the 300th career WTA Tour-level victory for the 29-year-old – which lifted her into 14th place among active players on the WTA Tour – and it earned Bencic another opportunity to play on the biggest show court at LTP Daniel Island in the third round.

Bencic’s “Golden Girl” career has included winning an Olympic gold medal, 10 WTA Tour titles – including two at the WTA 1000 level – and a career-high ranking of World No. 4, achieved six years ago in February 2020.

On Thursday, the No. 3-seed Bencic faced up-and-comer Sara Bejlek, a 20-year-old Czech lefty, who is seeded 13th and ranked No. 40, for a spot in the last eight and won 7-6 (4), 6-2 in one hour and 47 minutes for her 301st career victory to advance into Friday’s quarterfinal round.

Earlier this season, Bejlek, who was making her Charleston debut this week, won her first WTA 500 title at Abu Dhabi and reached a career-best ranking of No. 37 in February. She brought a 2-1 win-loss record in WTA 500-level play against Top-20 competition into her match against Bencic. By the end, she met her match against the more-experienced Swiss star. Overall, this season Bejlek is 8-4 (14-15 at tour level in her brief career).

After conceding the first three games to Bejlek, Bencic broke back in the fifth game and leveled the match at 3-all with a consolidation of the break. Her ability to redirect balls at will benefited her after she warmed up to her third-round opponent. Although Bejlek broke Bencic in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead, benefiting from a costly double fault on break point, Bencic got under Bejlek’s skin for the second time in the opening set and broke in the next game as the young Czech served for a one-set lead.

A first-set tie-break ensued that saw Bencic race to a 4-2 lead, winning three straight points in style. She went on to win the tie-break 7-4 by being more composed than Bejlek and relying on her trusty backhand to get her out of trouble during the 67-minute opener.

Then, after being broken at the start of the second set, Bencic turned things around quickly and won five straight games to take a commanding 5-1 lead. Although she was unable to serve out the win on her first try, broken by Bejlek for the fourth time, Bencic won the set 6-2 and the match in the next game on her second match-point opportunity.

Although Bejlek presented Bencic with all kinds of challenges, the Swiss star navigated her way through both sets and the victory, which improved her 2026 win-loss record to 14-4, advanced her to her fifth-career quarterfinal in Charleston.

“The match was very tricky,” Bencic admitted during her on-court interview. “It was very frustrating at times – mentally exhausting – but I’m really happy I fought through. I just accepted that I was tired today and now I have to win the next fight.

“I started really slow and I really had a hard a hard time tracking her ball and getting used to her game. … My start wasn’t great, but I’m happy I adjusted and was able to adapt to the conditions. I’m happy with my win.”

Bencic, who is making her ninth appearance in Charleston this week, has gained new perspectives since reaching her first WTA Tour semifinal in the Lowcountry as a 17-year-old qualifier, back in 2014. She risen to World No. 4 in the rankings and won an Olympic gold medal as well as become a wife and mother. Her husband, Martin Hromkovic, who is her fitness coach, and nearly-two-year-old daughter, Bella, are with her in Charleston this week to help keep it all in the family.

During her Media Day roundtable Monday afternoon, Bencic admitted that if she had to do it all over again, she would “enjoy it all a little bit more. It went quicker than I thought. Everyone told me that it would go very quickly, and I was like, ‘Oh, no, I have time.’ Find the right people around you. Everyone tries that, but really put more thought into building your team and improving yourself, your tennis. I think you can never stop improving. If you’re 35, 40 years old, you can still make things better. I think it’s also really important to not look at the results. Try to develop your game, even if that means that you have good results on the tour a bit later. And try to go out for dinner more, try to go out to see things more.”

One thing that Bencic has chosen as a priority is to bring her daughter on the road with her, whether it be to the US Open in New York City, such as last year, or to come to Charleston this week. “I choose to bring Bella to every tournament. I spend so much time with her,” she said. “I’m really grateful I have this opportunity, to have people around me that help me to do that, to be able to play and to bring Bella. Literally, I wake up to her every morning, I put her to sleep every night. It’s a huge privilege to do that and still be able to kind of continue in my job.”

In October 2024, Bencic returned to pro tennis just six months after giving birth to Bella. By 2025, she climbed the WTA Tour Rankings, going from No. 421 to No. 11 by the end of the year. She won two titles last season, at Abu Dhabi and Tokyo. Bencic was also a semifinalist at Wimbledon, which represented her second career last four at a major. Last month, she was a quarterfinalist at the Miami Open.

While Bencic admits she didn’t know how giving birth to a baby would affect her tennis career, now that she’s been a mother for nearly two years, it’s become a positive game-changer for her.

“Of course, I didn’t know how it was going to be before having a baby, but now I would say it’s eased it up for me a little bit, because I can separate my private life and my professional life much more. 

“I don’t have so much time to think about tennis, and maybe that’s a good thing for me. I’m not overthinking stuff. I’m really just more productive on the practice court. I practice less. I probably put less effort into being a professional tennis player, and somehow it’s working for the better.”

• In Friday’s quarterfinal round, Bencic will face 2019 Charleston champion and this year’s No. 5 seed Madison Keys of the United States, who defeated No. 68 Anna Bondar of Hungary, 6-2, 7-5, in one hour and 47 minutes for her 10th victory of the season.

The World No. 18 Keys, playing the Charleston Open for the 13th time in her career, hit 31 winners to 36 unforced errors, compared to 15 winners and 21 unforced errors by Bondar. She converted five of 12 break points against the Hungarian and outpointed her 84-68. 

“Overall, pretty good match,” Keys said during her news conference. “I think I had a really good first set, and I was just glad that I was able to kind of rest quickly in that second set and get the break back quickly. Yeah, overall, a rather good day.”

Keys will carry a 3-2 head-to-head-advantage into her last-eight match against Bencic.

“Obviously, a tough matchup,” Keys said. “We’ve gone back and forth a few times, and I mean, she’s just so good at taking the ball early, and kind of no matter what surface we’re on, she just always kind of plays how she wants to play – and I think that makes her really dangerous. 

“Yeah, it’s going to be a tough match and another day where I’m going to have to really just try to make sure that my weapons are working for me.”

Pegula moves one round closer to successful title defense

A day after World No. 5 and top seed Jessica Pegula notched the longest win of her 17-year professional tennis career, a 3-hour-10-minute 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 thriller over No. 72 Yulia Putintseva, the 2025 champion and top seed from the United States was back on court continuing her quest to successfully defend her title against No. 14 seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy.

Pegula was looking to avenge a 6-2, 6-3 loss to the 43rd-ranked Cocciaretto that she suffered in the opening round at Wimbledon last year. To her credit, she looked to the crowd for a home-court advantage – and Pegula has used Credit One Stadium like a home court after training in both Hilton Head and Charleston, S.C., while growing up and learning the facets of the game.

However, after two hours and many missed opportunities, Pegula, who already came back from down 0-3 in the decider, found herself needing to win a decisive third-set tie-break in order to advance to Friday’s quarterfinal round for the fourth-straight year. And guess what? That’s exactly what she did.

Pegula pulled out a 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1) victory over Cocciaretto in two-hours, five-minutes, in which she was two points from defeat, down 5-4 (30-15). Fortunately for Pegula, she pulled herself together and got the third-round match to a tiebreaker and won 7-1, after Cocciaretto double-faulted on match point. From 6-5 down, Pegula won 11 of the final 12 points of the match.

“It was a challenge, she was playing really well,” Pegula said of Cocciaretto, during her on-court interview. “She beat me the last time we played, so there was a bit of a mental thing too, but I was able to serve really well, I think, at the end. And then I just held my nerve. …

“I found a couple of good patterns – I was hitting my backhand pretty well, and I just wanted to stick with what felt good in the moment. That was my backhand down the line, I think I came up with some big ones at the end that kind of saved me.”

During her Wednesday news conference after defeating Putintseva, the 32-year-old Pegula said she loves playing in Charleston. “To me, it feels very familiar. I lived here for a couple of years and trained her in my early 20s. It’s an amazing tournament, probably the best, if not one of the best, tournaments we have on [the WTA] Tour,” she said. “I think that’s why I always come back, because it’s really a fun week for me. My husband comes with me. We bring our dogs with us. I see a lot of friends. We see a lot of family, and I feel it’s nice to be able to play a tournament where it doesn’t feel so high stressed all the time. It’s easy to enjoy the city.

“You’re still trying to win matches, but it’s a little bit of a lighter week, and I think the tournament always makes you feel super welcome and wants you to enjoy being here in Charleston, with the fans, with the people, with the food, with the experiences.”

• On Friday, Pegula will play World No. 19 and seventh seed Diana Shnaider of Russia, who celebrated her 22nd birthday Thursday by advancing to the quarterfinal round with an impressive 6-3, 6-0 victory over World No. 24 and ninth seed Leylah Fernandez of Canada in one hour and 25 minutes on Althea Gibson Club Court.

Shnaider, who won the last nine games of the third-round match, converted four of 15 break points and saved both break points she faced from Fernandez. She outpointed her opponent 68-48.

“It’s my birthday week … I love to play here and I love the atmosphere here,” Shnaider told reporters after her win. “The people are amazing and coming to cheer for all of the players. … So, definitely for us, it’s a pleasure to play here … looking forward to playing on the stadium tomorrow.”

Around the Charleston Open

Thursday’s night session on Credit One Stadium featured a quartet of players each who have had prior winning experiences on the biggest show court at LTP Daniel Island this week.

First, World No. 16 and fourth seed Iva Jovic of the United States defeated fellow American and No. 16 seed Sofia Kenin, 7-5, 7-5, for her 16th victory of the season. The 18-year-old Jovic hit 31 winners, made just 12 unforced errors and converted five of nine break points. She outpointed the 47th-ranked Kenin 89-73.

“It was a tough match and a lot of little moments that decided it,” Jovic said during her news conference afterward. “So, just happy to be through.”

It was followed by 113th-ranked Spanish wild card Paula Badosa against World No. 22 and eighth seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia in a match-up of big hitters with the final quarterfinal berth at stake and the winner to face Jovic.

As it happened, it was Kalinskaya who reached the last eight at Charleston for the third time in three appearances. She beat Badosa, 6-4, 6-2, in one hour and 15 minutes. Kalinskaya hit 22 winners, converted four of four break points and outpointed Badosa 57-40.

Other Thursday winners:

• No. 53 McCartney Kessler upset No. 17 seed Peyton Stearns, ranked 46th, 6-0, 3-6, 6-4, in two hours and one minute on Althea Gibson Club Court that required eight match points to decide the outcome. It was Kessler’s second win this week over a seeded player after taking out No. 41 and 12th seed Janice Tjen on Wednesday.

Kessler raced to a one set lead with a 24-minute, 6-0 bagel performance against Stearns, in which she dropped just two points on her first serve and broke her opponent three times. However, Stearns struck back and leveled the match 6-3 to send it to a decider. Then, serving for the match, Kessler let slip a septet of match points in the 10th game. Finally, she won the match on her eighth match-point opportunity with her sixth break of Stearns’s serve to advance to the quarterfinal round. It capped a seven-deuce, 20-point final game.

On Friday, Kessler will play No. 89 Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine, who defeated No. 85 Renata Zarazua of Mexico, 6-1, 6-0, in 61 minutes on Althea Gibson Club Court. Starodubtseva faced no break points and broke Zarazua’s serve five times in eight tries. She outpointed her opponent 50-23.

• In doubles, No. 1 seeds Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Zhang Shuai of China were upset by American Desirae Krawcyzk and Caty McNally, 6-1, 7-5, in an hour and 23 minutes on Court 3 in a quarterfinal-round clash. In the semifinals, they will face Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, who rallied to defeat Ekaterine Gorgodze of Georgia and Renata Zarazua of Mexico, 3-6, 7-5, 10-7, in one hour and 40 minutes on Althea Gibson Club Court.

Thursday’s Charleston Open results

Friday’s Charleston Open order of play

By the numbers

When Belinda Bencic won her 300th career WTA Tour-level match Tuesday evening, a 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3 victory over Dayana Yastremska, it moved her into 14th place among active players with 300-plus tour-level wins. The leader is Venus Williams (781) followed by Victoria Azarenka (579), Vera Zvonareva (461) and Elina Svitolina (424). Just ahead of Bencic is Elise Mertens (302) and Daria Kasatkina (311).

“Quotable …”

“It gives me belief again, like that I can come back, that I have the level, that I can compete against these players, that they can do amazing points – amazing games – and I can fight through that again. And I missed that from myself, because I wasn’t finding that this year. So, I think it’s wonderful to find it again, and mentally, I think I’m overcoming a lot of, yeah, obstacles in a way.”

– Wild card Paula Badosa of Spain, during her post-match news conference Wednesday after defeating No. 10 seed Maria Sakkari, 6-3, 6-4, expressing that a win like that gives her the belief that she’s on the right path with her journey to recover – both mentally and physically.

 

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