Switzerland have started their 2025 United Cup campaign with a 2-1 victory over France as Belinda Bencic starred, both in singles and mixed doubles, in her return to top-flight tennis.
Bencic opened up proceedings with a comprehensive victory over Chloe Paquet. Playing in a top-level tournament for the first time since 2023, Bencic looked fluent and assured, especially on her favoured backhand wing, as she blasted 31 winners to leave Paquet with very few opportunities to take the attack to her opponent.
"It was really nice to play singles," said Bencic. “I felt, of course, a little bit of the rust [at] the start of the match, then I kind of was able to settle. I felt smooth throughout the first set and the second set."
Given that she had only played a few lower-level ITF tournaments since her return from maternity leave, Bencic was pleasantly surprised with her level this early in the season.
"I think my level is higher than I expected it to be because I didn't expect to be here yet," she said. "Definitely the whole comeback went much faster than I anticipated and expected. It's super great."
Facing a 1-0 deficit, Ugo Humbert beat Dominic Stricker to send the tie into a decider. In a match that epitomised first-strike tennis, Humbert took the first set without facing a break point. Stricker broke early in the second set, but as he was serving for the set, Humbert found two sensational passes to break back before continuing the momentum as he broke again and served out the match.
For the crucial mixed doubles, Swiss captain Sandra Naef brought back Bencic and Stricker, while French captain Fabrice Martin relied on the doubles nous of specialist pairing Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Elixane Lechemia.
Bencic and Stricker started strong, taking the opening set 6-1, as Stricker targeted Lechemia at the net with heavy forehands. However, the French pair fought back to take the second set into a tiebreak, with the experienced Roger-Vasselin stepping up with some sharp net play. Once Bencic and Stricker took the mini-break off the Lechemia serve in the tiebreak, Stricker had no trouble serving out the match to seal a crucial win for the Swiss pair.
"First set we played nearly everything perfect," Stricker said after the match. "Then second set we knew that they will change something, and they did. But we stayed calm, we did our things, we kept serving well. I think that was the key."
While team Switzerland have a very short turn-around before their match against Italy tomorrow night, the team is not worried about maintaining their form and remains confident looking ahead to what will likely be a considerably tougher test.
"I prefer to play back-to-back because I feel like we're in the rhythm,” said Bencic. "It's going to be the first match for Italy, so I definitely feel like it could be an advantage for us. Don't like to have four days off between the second tie.
"I feel like we had good conditions today. It's going to be a different time. It's good for us to play again tomorrow."
Switzerland will return to Ken Rosewall Arena tomorrow night to take on Italy, while France will play their final group tie against the Italians on New Year’s Eve.
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