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Belinda Bencic Olympics Billie Jean King Cup
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‘The best day of my career’ – Belinda Bencic closes in on Olympic double


Belinda Bencic said she does not “want this dream to stop now” after reaching the finals of the women’s singles and doubles events at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Swiss has guaranteed herself at least two silver medals after making it to the gold medal matches.

Bencic first battled past Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3 in the last four of the women’s singles tournament.

The world number 12 then teamed up with countrywoman Viktorija Golubic to defeat Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 7-5, 6-3 in the women’s doubles semi-finals.

“This is for sure the best day [of my career], of course. This is the biggest result I have reached so far – and the biggest result in doubles. To do it both in the same day, it’s for sure the best result,” said the 24-year-old in a post-match interview.

“I don’t really want this dream to stop – we were talking about maybe we wake up tomorrow and none of this happened and we’re going to be sad! But it’s reality. We’re super happy.

“Right now I think it’s the emotions that get me through, it’s the positivity. It’s really this high. Now is definitely not the time to stop. I’m not going to jinx it – we go, we go. It’s not done yet. We still will have some energy for the finals.

“My emotions right now, it’s too high. To have a medal, it’s the greatest thing. Even to be here as an athlete, in the Olympics, it’s amazing. To have a medal, it’s something I dreamed of, and I didn’t think it would become reality. I’m beyond relieved and happy.”

Bencic will compete against Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova for the singles gold on Saturday, before she and Golubic will face Czech pair Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova on Sunday.

Photo credit: Kopatsch/Sato/Sidorjak


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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.