It’s the night before what promises to be the biggest day of your life. Do you get any sleep?
Belinda Bencic, head uneasily resting on a pillow in Tokyo’s Olympic Village three years ago, did not. The gifted Swiss player couldn’t get comfortable, contemplating gold-medal matches in both singles and doubles.
“I was awake all night, just because of the nerves,” Bencic said recently from her home in Monaco. “So many emotions … you are so close to your dream.
“It was singles and doubles every day, and it was so hot. I remember I was at the end of my strength. The next day I was very, very tired, fighting through that --because it was a now-or-never moment. The adrenaline on the next day for sure got me through.”
Indeed it did, as Bencic triumphed over Marketa Vondrousova in three sets to take the gold. A day later, she and Viktorija Golubic fell to Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in the doubles final, but Bencic came home with a silver.
Three years later, she finds herself in a vastly different space. In April, she and longtime partner Martin Hromkovic welcomed daughter Bella into the world. Bencic won’t be on hand in Paris to defend her title, but she’ll be following the action closely.
“It definitely doesn’t feel like yesterday,” Bencic said. “In my memory, it’s very present -- but I know it’s three years. A lot has changed since then.”
Normally it’s a four-year cycle, but the global pandemic pushed the Tokyo games into the summer of 2021. Bencic has played more than 600 matches but has keen memories of those six singles matches at Ariake Tennis Park. As Olympic tennis begins on Saturday, those memories will be at the front of her mind.
Bencic came out of nowhere, really. Here are the eight players seeded ahead of her: Ashleigh Barty, Naomi Osaka, Aryna Sabalenka, Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova, Iga Swiatek, Garbiñe Muguruza and Barbora Krejcikova -- who today have combined for18 major singles titles. Bencic had been to the semifinals of one US Open.
Bencic was the WTA Comeback Player of the Year in 2019, winning titles in Dubai and Moscow. She reached a career-high No.4 ranking in 2020 but came into those Olympics as the No.9 seed.
Grand Slams are a meeting of the elite in women and men’s tennis. The Olympics, she said, were special because they brought together the best from so many different disciplines. Bencic’s favorite part was mingling with those world-class athletes, seeing what they ate, how they trained -- and collecting pins.
Her first two matches went fairly easily. She was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Jessica Pegula in the first round and defeated Misaki Doi 6-2, 6-4 in the second. In the Round of 16, however, she dropped the first set to Krejcikova 6-1.
“After that first set there was a rain delay, and I was on the phone with my coach [Sebastian Sachs],” Bencic said. “He was watching the match online, streaming, so he gave me a lot of things that I could change.
“So I tried something completely different and was coming back, playing much more freely. I remember it was like a huge fight and close points.”
Bencic managed to prevail 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Her quarterfinals opponent, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, wasn’t any easier. It was another three-setter, and Bencic advanced to the semifinals with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 victory. The match could have gone either way, but Bencic “stayed really calm and brave in the tough moments.”
One of the realities of Olympic tennis is that the semifinals are sometimes more stressful than the final -- because the loser is not guaranteed a medal in the bronze-medal match. That’s how it played out as Bencic and Rybakina went to a first-set tiebreak. Bencic won that frame and, eventually, the match 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3 -- her third consecutive three-set match. The key was Bencic’s artful returning game against one of the best servers on the WTA Tour.
This was when the possibilities began to overwhelm Bencic.
“At the start, you don’t even think about maybe getting a medal, and you take it match for match,” she said. “Maybe I was so busy playing singles and doubles same day and so happy to be in the village, I just didn’t have time to overthink much. But, of course, the pressure was building and building.
“What I did was completely turn off my phone, so I didn’t have people messaging me -- `Oh, my God, get the medal -- blah, blah, blah.’ I remember after winning the match I was already in tears because I couldn’t believe I had an Olympic medal for sure. Of course, you tell yourself, `Oh, I already have a medal,’ but then you are in the final and you say, `Yeah, now I want a gold medal.’”
The heat was oppressive that day, and Vondrousova was at her drop-shotting best. In the third set, Bencic asked the chair umpire for an outfit change.
“I had to get it done in one minute because I had already used my toilet break,” Bencic said, laughing. “So I had to get everything off and then back on my sweaty body. It was maybe the most difficult part of the whole match.”
Bencic won the match 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. Afterward, she said she felt just as much relief as joy. It was the first gold-medal singles win for Switzerland since Marc Rosset in 1992. Yes, Roger Federer (20 majors), Stan Wawrinka (three) and Martina Hingis (five) never won singles gold.
“I definitely knew that,” Bencic said. “But it’s still incredible to think that they hadn’t won it. So, if I managed to win it maybe it’s like they’ve won all these Grand Slams, all these other titles so maybe I can make this cycle for Switzerland complete. Now together we have accomplished everything.”
Bencic and Golubic had played so well to reach the doubles final, each picking the other up during those flurries of uneven play. Krejcikova and Siniakova, the top seeds from the Czech Republic, won in straight sets. After 10 consecutive match-wins in Tokyo, Bencic lost the last one.
The gold and silver medals, along with all her credentials, all those pins and her winning maroon-and-white outfit, are in a box at her home in Monaco. It’s called the Olympic box and from time to time, Bencic pulls it out. Sometimes for curious friends, sometimes to enjoy a private reminiscence.
What emotions come flooding back?
“Hmmm,” Bencic said, pausing. “The pride. I’m proud of myself, what I achieved there. Incredible emotions. Something very different from my normal tournament life.
“A really cool experience that will stay in my mind forever.”
