Wild card Belinda Bencic continued her strong run since returning from maternity leave by notching a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 upset of third-seeded Coco Gauff on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif.
Bencic converted 3 of 5 break points and recovered from a first-set loss before recovering to send Gauff packing in the round of 16 match.
Bencic was facing game point when trailing 4-3 in third set before rallying to win that game and then claiming the next two to win and avenge a fourth-round loss in this year’s Australian Open.
“It’s a big challenge playing Coco,” Bencic said. “I felt like it was the last moment when the match went one way. … I’m very happy for the wild card so thank you to the tournament for having me here.”
Bencic, who turned 28 on Monday, will face fifth-seeded Madison Keys of the United States in the quarterfinals.
Bencic, a Switzerland native, gave birth to daughter Bella last April and returned to the WTA Tour in the fall.
She is off to a strong start in 2025 and beat Ashlyn Krueger in the Abu Dhabi Open final in February for her ninth career victory.
The 2021 Olympic gold medalist has been as high as world No. 4 in her career but stood at 58th entering this tourney. But she said she has a different mindset now that she’s a mother.
“I always tell myself ‘it doesn’t matter if I win this match, I already won in life,” Bencic said. “I have a beautiful family. Obviously, I still want to win tennis matches. It’s still my dream. But definitely my priorities have changed. I’m very blessed.”
Gauff had a 31-21 edge in winners but also committed more errors (36-27) than Bencic. Gauff again had serving issues, committing eight double faults to Bencic’s three.
“Today the difference was (Bencic) was a bit more aggressive than I was, and in those moments in Australia, I stepped up my game to be more aggressive the last two sets, and she kind of did that to me (today),” Gauff said.
Gauff, who turns 21 on Thursday, has lost four of her past six matches, beginning with a quarterfinal loss to Paula Badosa in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Keys rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 win over 19th-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia on Wednesday.
Keys had a point to level the match at 4-5 of the second set, but Vekic bounced back and sent the set to a tiebreaker, where Keys needed three more set points to level the match. In the third set, Keys jumped on top with a break in the first game, then pulled away late with two more breaks.
Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus overwhelmed British lucky loser Sonay Kartal 6-1, 6-2 in 72 minutes. Next up for Sabalenka is 25th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, who trounced sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy 6-0, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
