Bencic is as diehard of a tennis fan as the rest of us

Some players on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz prefer to put on tennis blinders -- their own games aside, of course -- between matches, giving themselves a break from what's happening on the courts around them.

Belinda Bencic, now into the fourth round of Wimbledon after beating 19th-seeded Anna Kalinskaya on Friday, is not one of those players. 

When she's not playing, she's watching.

"I will now go back to the house and put on the tennis on the TV," she said in her on-court interview after her 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) win. "And put on the tennis on the iPad, and on the iPhone, and watch even more. ... I'm just like you. I'm a tennis fan. I enjoy watching other matches, too."

Bencic, who made the semifinals at the All England Club last year, confirmed that she also watches film of her opponents between matches, but the volume depends on the player and the current state of her game.

"Of course with some opponents, a little bit more and with some a little bit less," she told reporters. "Always depends on the player and also my tactic, if I'm focusing more on what to do or if I'm focusing more on myself.

"I'm watching a lot of someone, for example, who I don't know. So, for example, the first match that I was playing, I don't know my opponent at all, so I have to watch a lot."

That player was 17-year-old British wild card Mika Stojsavljevic, who Bencic dismantled 6-2, 6-1. She followed that up with a fairly straightforward 7-5, 6-0 win over unseeded Xinyu Wang before facing a stiff test against Kalinskaya.

Bencic is now into the fourth round of Wimbledon for the fifth time, and the third consecutive year. She'll play seventh-seeded Coco Gauff for a spot in the quarterfinals on Sunday. She trails Gauff 5-2 in their head-to-head, though they've never played on grass.