LONDON: Switzerland's Belinda Bencic said her dream had come true after she reached a first Wimbledon semifinal with a 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2) win against Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva on Wednesday.
The former Olympic champion is enjoying her best run at the All England Club just over a year after giving birth.
The 28-year-old had her daughter Bella in April 2024, but has already risen to 35 in the world since returning from maternity leave.
Wimbledon appears to be child's play for Bencic this year and she dispatched Andreeva in just over two hours of enthralling quarterfinal action on Centre Court.
Bencic, a former world number four, will face five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek for a place in Saturday's final.
Bencic's only other Grand Slam last-four appearance ended in defeat at the US Open in 2019, two years before she won singles gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
She is the first Swiss woman semifinalist at Wimbledon since Martina Hingis 27 years ago, having failed to make it past the last 16 in her previous eight visits to southwest London.
The rising star of the WTA Tour, 18-year-old Andreeva was the youngest women's Wimbledon quarterfinalist since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007.
Under the wing of former Wimbledon winner Conchita Martinez, the Russian had breezed through the first four rounds without dropping a set.
Andreeva said she was so focused on each point during her fourth-round tie against Emma Navarro that she did not realise when she won on match point.
But Bencic proved equally locked in and the Swiss veteran defied a painful cracked toe-nail in the second set to seal her memorable triumph.
"They always crack. It is the life of a tennis player. I didn't want to take a medical time-out so you don't have to see this," she said.
SWIATEK ADVANCES
Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in her illustrious career on Wednesday, beating Russia's Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 7-5.
The Polish eighth seed will face Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva or former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic for a place in Saturday's final.
Swiatek has won four titles on the clay at the French Open, as well as the US Open in 2022, but has struggled on the lawns of the All England Club.
Her previous best result at Wimbledon was a run to the quarter-finals in 2023.
Swiatek broke her opponent twice in the opening set to take a firm grip on the match, benefiting from a flurry of unforced errors from her opponent and winning 100 percent of her points on first serve.
Two double faults from Russian 19th seed Samsonova handed Swiatek an early break in the second set and she snuffed out a clutch of break-points in the following game to go 3-0 up.
The 24-year-old was pegged back by two breaks of serve as her level dipped and Samsonova pulled level at 4-4.
But Swiatek regrouped and broke again to seal the win. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
