Belinda Bencic Extends Career-Best Win Streak at Australian Open

It was 'Belinda's world' two weeks ago at the United Cup, where Belinda Bencic was named the tournament's MVP for her near-flawless performance in leading Switzerland to the final. Teammate Stan Wawrinka coined the phrase in honor of her 9-1 overall record at the event (5-0 in singles). It was still Belinda's world at the Australian Open, as the No. 10 seed got her campaign off to a flying start with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Katie Boulter. Bencic's active singles winning streak now stands at 12 matches, tying the career-best tour-level streak that she set in 2019. Australian Open: Scores | Draws | Order of play Bencic has not lost a match since her 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Jasmine Paolini in last October's Ningbo quarterfinals. Following that, she claimed her 10th career WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz title in Tokyo, then reached the last eight in Hong Kong. A left thigh injury forced her to withdraw ahead of her quarterfinal match (and thus did not snap the streak), and Bencic resumed her winning ways with her unbeaten United Cup campaign. That result enabled former No. 4 Bencic, who came back from maternity leave in October 2024, to return to the Top 10 in the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time since March 2023. And she feels she's still improving as a player. "I think I definitely improved in my movement, I would say," Bencic said in her press conference when asked about her winning streak. "I also think my serve got more steady, better. I would say my net game, as well. I can see that mostly in practice. I still try to incorporate it a little bit more in matches. I mean, obviously I'm very good at taking the swing volleys. But I think the regular volley also got better." Between February and March 2019, Bencic also notched 12 straight wins with an unbeaten Billie Jean King Cup campaign followed by her third career title in Dubai and a semifinal run in Indian Wells -- a streak ended by Angelique Kerber. Bencic will have the chance to set a new career-best winning streak when she takes on either Daria Kasatkina or qualifier Nikola Bartunkova in the second round. Against Boulter, Bencic delivered a dominant 26-minute first set in which she conceded only 10 points and did not face game point. The No. 113-ranked Briton got a foothold in the match in the second set, upping her intensity from the baseline to notch three solid holds. Bencic claimed the first break of the set for 4-3 via a stellar counter-drop shot, only for Boulter to break back immediately. But from 5-4 down, Bencic began to spread the court and get Boulter on the move as she had in the first set, reeling off the last three games in a row and sealing match point with an emphatic drive volley. "I was definitely being ready," she said. "That's how I started. I think I was very focused, very ready. I was also ready for it to become a little bit more tight. Of course sometimes it's not easy to win the first set 6-0." A player who might empathize with that statement was Liudmila Samsonova. The No. 18 seed led Laura Siegemund 6-0, 5-2, and held two match points on the German's serve at 5-3. But the 37-year-old World No. 48 hung on, began weaving her web of spins and net-rushes, and emerged an unlikley 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 victor in 2 hours and 31 minutes. The result was Siegemund's third consecutive Top 20 upset at the Australian Open -- she defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova in the 2024 first round and Zheng Qinwen in the 2025 second round -- and her fourth Top 20 win in the past five majors, having also ousted Madison Keys at Wimbledon and Diana Shnaider at the US Open last year.