Less than a year after becoming a mother for the first time, 2021 Olympic gold medalist and former World No. 4 Belinda Bencic is soaring up the rankings once again. Playing in her sixth tour-level event since her comeback started here in the California desert, the Swiss has already won a title and shaved over 800 spots from her 2024 year-end ranking in the season’s first two months. 

After her second-round win over Amanda Anisimova, BNPParibasOpen.com caught up with the 27-year-old World No. 58 to talk about her Grand Slam ambitions, life with her daughter Bella on Tour, and why she chose to reunite with former coach Iain Hughes for her comeback.

I know it’s important for you to find out how you match up against hard hitters like Amanda. How did you feel about today’s win over her? 

I felt like I always struggled a little bit against hard-hitting opponents before in my career, now I feel like I’m handling it much better, and adding a little power to my game as well. Today I felt like I had to just grind and weather the storm a little bit and kind of put balls back, trying to make every ball and make her do a bit of Russian Roulette. 

She hit a lot of winners too, but I just wanted to stay tough and put pressure on her. 

You want to work on putting more power in your game? And you feel like you have improved against the more powerful players? 

Yes, I feel like I have. Early in my career, I felt like I was lacking that a little bit, and playing against the big hitters was more challenging for me – I liked it more when someone would rally. But now I feel like I’m much better, and also I feel much better in my defensive game also, physically, moving better, so yes, it’s for sure challenging for me but I’m managing better now.

Talk about re-uniting with your old coach Iain Hugues, and how are things progressing? 

Super good. I think that was a really great decision. I was looking for someone after pregnancy for a comeback and we already did a comeback before, after my first big injury, after my wrist surgery, and I felt like he knows exactly what I need in these moments, and he can make a good plan for coming back. He knows not to over-practice, but also to do enough so that I feel like I’m spending enough time on the court, putting a lot of work in, feeling good with my rhythm on the court. I definitely feel that he’s very experienced with that and I’m very happy with my decision to work with him again. 

Can we talk about baby Bella? 

Sure. 

Is she here? 

Yes, she’s here. 

So she’s been at pretty much every stop you’ve made since your comeback started? 

Yes, she’s very young, and she also needs her mom, so I cannot imagine being without her yet. 

What’s the rhythm and routine like? 

I think it’s tough to say, we don’t really have a routine yet. Whenever she wants to sleep, she has her rhythm a little bit. Sleeping twice a day, and we kind of try to work around that. Also with practices, I try to practice early so I can have the whole day with her and spend time with her on my days off. I think she’s our little dictator, in terms of doing a routine we try to work around her, so it’s tough to say with babies the routine changes every two weeks, so we have to be very open and spontaneous and flexible.

You recently said that because of Bella you feel like you have already won no matter what happens in your career. Is that pretty amazing to play with that new feeling? 

Absolutely, I feel like I won in life. Having a family, having a perfect husband and having a really happy private life, what more can you wish for? Obviously my tennis is a very big part of my life but now it’s not everything anymore, to me. I still feel like I want to do well and maximize everything out of my career, because I put so much work in, I don’t just want to throw that away, I want to take everything I can out of it. Still I feel like whatever happens, I’m a very happy person.

You know that only three moms have won a title in the history of the WTA

Yes. 

Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong and Kim Clijsters. Sounds crazy, but not even Serena could do it, even though she was older when she had her first baby 

Yeah, but Serena did very well after having a baby. Compared her results, she did many finals. I think that is a great achievement as well. 

Do you think you could be the fourth? 

I would love to for sure, that’s my goal. I will try everything I can to do this, because this is why I started to play tennis. But it’s not more motivation just because I’m a mom, it’s just what I want to do all the time in my career. I just failed to do it until now but I will try everything I can. 

The Olympic gold medal in Tokyo is great, but it’s not enough to keep you satisfied? 

Well, it is, for sure. I almost think the Olympic gold will be my biggest achievement, no matter what, because the chance is so small. You have four Grand Slams in a year, you have so many chances to do that, but you only play two or three Olympics in your whole career, if it goes well. I am so happy that I took that chance. I think that’s gonna stay with me forever. Being at the Olympics is already amazing, but to have a gold medal, and a silver medal I think it’s great and I’m so proud of it. 

Obviously as a tennis player you always want more and more and more, it’s very natural.