"She can win a slam" - Marc Rosset on Belinda Bencic

Barcelona 1992 Olympics singles champion Marc Rosset still believes that compatriot and fellow Olympic champion Belinda Bencic still has it in her to rock the WTA tour and win a Slam title.

The Swiss world number 13 recently secured her fifth career singles title and first on clay at the Charleston Open, defeating world number 10 Ons Jabeur in the final. Still only 25, Bencic burst onto the pro tour a decade ago at the age of 14, making her WTA tour debut in October 2012 at the age of 15.

She has since peaked at a career-high of fourth in the WTA rankings in February 2020, and while she has two WTA 1000 level titles to her name and a gold medal in singles from Tokyo 2020, she is yet to win a Slam. Speaking to RTS, Rosset said:

“We have to wait and see, because every year we say to ourselves that she has the means to win a Slam tournament. It is clear that she has the talent and the potential to do so. It is indisputable. But you can say and write what you want, it’s on the ground that things have to happen.”

Historically, Bencic’s best Slam performances have all come at the US Open, reaching the quarter-finals in 2014 and 2021 and the semi-finals in 2019.

in 2019 and 2021 she lost to eventual champions Bianca Andreescu and Emma Raducanu respectively, something Rosset went on to reference:

"Take the last US Open. In the quarter-finals against Raducanu, Bencic appeared hyper-nervous and, something you often see when she’s a little off guard, she didn’t have a plan B in her game. She got bogged down and it ended up being no competition.”