"He understands if I'm nervous, too loose or too excited": Bencic on how adding boyfriend to coaching team is an advantage

Belinda Bencic has credited the presence of her boyfriend Martin Hromkovič as a big part of her managing to remain calm under stress during matches.

Bencic has been working with Tursunov for a while but she also added her boyfriend to her team. The 40-year-old is a former athlete himself though his sport of choice was football. Even so, Hromkovič understands really well what it's like to be in a competitive environment and that helps Bencic:

"I know it looks quite harsh probably, but you know, I'm looking for a confirmation. Something they can give to me, like even though I did a mistake but was it a good mistake? I really have a great connection with my boyfriend, he knows how I am on the court and he understands if I'm nervous, too loose or too excited, so he can definitely do a lot from the box as well."

Hromkovic serves as her fitness coach and it's been working well both on and off the court. Speaking further about returning to clay, Bencic admitted that the surface is growing on her:

"I didn't really like clay before. I felt like last year in Charleston, that made me change my mind a little bit, but maybe its also because I really like green clay more than the red clay. I think I first have to make a good relationship here with the green clay and then move on to Europe for the red clay and try to do better there."