Belinda Bencic is having a birthday week to remember in the desert. The Swiss — who turned 28 on March 10 — reached the quarterfinals at the BNP Paribas Open after beating Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a Stadium 1 thriller on Wednesday.

“I felt like it (wasn’t) until the last moment that the match went one way,” Bencic said on court afterwards. “I definitely tried to improve a little bit from the first set, what I did tactically. But otherwise, I just tried to fight and hang in there.”

When they met in the same fourth round at the Australian Open in January, Gauff was the one who came from a set down to prevail. Six years after Bianca Andreescu triumphed in the desert, could Bencic emulate the Canadian and take the title as a wild card? That same year in 2019, Bencic made the semifinals in Indian Wells. “Obviously I’m very happy about the wild card,” said Bencic. “So thank you so much for the tournament for having me here.”

She only fully returned to the tour this year after giving birth to daughter Bella last April. “I have a beautiful family and everything that I can be happy for. Obviously, I still want to win tennis matches. It’s still my dream,” said the 2021 Olympic champion and former Top 10 player. “But definitely my priorities have changed. I’m very blessed in my life.”

You’d never know she was away. A former teen prodigy like Gauff, Bencic improved to 17-4 in 2025, with one title.

For World No. 3 Gauff, it wasn’t the best birthday present — the Floridian turns a watershed 21 on Thursday. Last year’s semifinalist will rue how the match ended — she was broken from 40-0 at 4-4 in the final set. The 2023 US Open winner only hit five more unforced errors than winners but did struggle at times with her serve and forehand, two much discussed parts of her game.

Bencic did much of the dictating, especially after the first set, with Gauff admirably soaking up pressure and frequently turning defense into attack. They embarked on several sizzling backhand to backhand exchanges. They each won 88 points, a showing of just how close the match was.