The mother of all comebacks: Belinda Bencic’s blueprint for returning to the top of the game

Her first match of the 2025 season did not begin to suggest the spectacular success that would follow.

Seven months after giving birth to daughter Bella, Belinda Bencic lost 6-1, 6-1 to Jasmine Paolini in United Cup play.

“Tough loss, but it was very expected,” Bencic said recently from her home in northern Switzerland. “It was a good reality check.”

Typically, Bencic takes losses hard; it’s what you’d expect from an elite player who won Olympic gold and silver medals in singles and doubles. But because of the extenuating circumstances -- the fresh perspective of becoming a mother -- Bencic wasn’t troubled. Afterward, she, husband Martin Hromkovic and Bella took in the waves in Sydney.

“It was completely fine with me,” Bencic explained. “I wasn’t looking at the result so much. I was just looking for ways to improve.”

Bencic did more than just improve. Ranked No. 487 when she fell to Paolini, Bencic rallied in epic, almost unbelievable fashion, winning titles in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and finishing the season ranked No. 11.

That’s why Bencic is being honored as the WTA’s 2025 Comeback Player of the Year.

“I am surprised at the level that I played,” Bencic said. “It’s been a crazy lot of work, and obviously it hasn’t been easy at all to come back. It’s been really tough on the body and really tough mentally, also logistically.”

“It’s something I’m really proud of.”

Before Bella, Bencic rarely expressed that sentiment -- even to herself.

“But after having Bella,” she said, “I really say it to myself every day and I think that changes a lot.”

Bencic stepped away from tennis at the end of the 2023 season and gave birth in April 2024. After playing her last match in September 2023, Bencic stepped on the court 13 months later for an ITF W75 event in Hamburg.

“When I was pregnant, I really wasn’t thinking about tennis or coming back,” she said. “It was the goal, but I wasn’t planning back then. Obviously, I wanted to come back but you never know how your mind changes. It could have said, 'Oh, sorry, I’m never going to play again.’ 

“So I was going into it in a very neutral way, very open for everything. And maybe if things hadn’t gone ideally, if I needed more time, maybe I come back in two, three years. So I wasn’t setting myself a timeline with all that pressure.”

After a second ITF W75 tournament in November, Bencic made one last appearance in 2024. She beat four players ranked among the Top 250 in a WTA 125 before falling in the Angers, France final to Alycia Parks.

“I knew that physically I wasn’t completely at my best -- I was still breastfeeding when playing these first tournaments,” Bencic said. “Your body changes so much but it’s crazy how much you lose and how long it takes to get it back. It showed me that I had to be physically fit and I can be a good player again.”

Nine months after giving birth, when Bencic defeated former Grand Slam champions Jelena Ostapenko and Naomi Osaka in Melbourne, it was clear she was serious about her comeback. A title followed in Abu Dhabi and in July Bencic reached the second Grand Slam semifinal of her career at Wimbledon. One year after her return, she won the title in Tokyo, lifting her ranking to No. 11, not far off her career best of No. 4.

Ask her what she’s proudest of and Bencic doesn’t mention any of those on-court triumphs. It was the collective family effort -- with no nanny -- that allowed her the time and space to compete.

“I have an unbelievable husband that is 24/7 with Bella,” she said. “I have my mom and my dad and both of my husband’s parents that are helping so much -- even when we’re home and I have to go to practice.

“It takes a village, yeah.”

Bencic is scheduled to play the United Cup for Team Switzerland after the first of the new year, then Adelaide and the Australian Open. And, oddly enough, Bencic will get another crack at Paolini when Switzerland meets Italy in Perth. This fall, in a good measure of her improvement, Bencic lost a tight, three-set match to the Italian.

At 28, Bencic is nicely positioned to play as long as she wishes.

“For sure, it’s fair to say I want to have more kids -- but I don’t want to come back after having another one,” she said, laughing. “I’m just going to see how much I can give, how much I want to play and just finish basically whenever I want.

“I feel like I can physically improve and get better. I still have a little bit of weight to lose and all of these things that can be better. I don’t think that right now I am at 100 percent physically.”

Bencic is the most recent in a trend among WTA Tour players to take a maternity leave while still in their prime. Kim Clijsters was a pioneer in that respect, winning three Grand Slam singles titles after giving birth to daughter Jada in 2008. More recently, Victoria Azarenka, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina were accomplished singles players before they became mothers and engineered successful returns.

“Absolutely, they helped me,” Bencic said. “Because I had this option of coming back and being confident about it, that it’s possible because they showed that it is. I didn’t want the pressure at the end of my career because my biological clock is ticking and I need to have a baby. That’s why I felt like it was a better decision to have it in between my career and comeback.”

Bencic hopes her journey inspires other athletes.

“I think it shows that we don’t have to choose between a family and a career,” Bencic said. “It shows also that it’s possible to do, even though your body is changing so much during pregnancy. I feel as athletes, if we work really hard, it’s possible.

“I hope it gives a lot of confidence to the next athletes that choose to become moms.”