Still Belinda's world: Bencic ties career-best win streak at Australian Open

It felt like “Belinda’s world” two weeks ago at the United Cup, where Belinda Bencic earned tournament MVP honors after a near-flawless run that carried Switzerland to the final. Teammate Stan Wawrinka coined the phrase in recognition of her 9–1 overall record at the event, including a perfect 5–0 mark in singles.

That form carried straight into Melbourne. The No. 10 seed opened her Australian Open campaign with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Katie Boulter, extending her active singles winning streak to 12 matches -- matching the longest tour-level run of her career, first set in 2019.

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Bencic has not lost a match since her 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Jasmine Paolini in last October's Ningbo quarterfinals. Following that, she claimed her 10th career WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz title in Tokyo, then reached the last eight in Hong Kong. A left thigh injury forced her to withdraw ahead of her quarterfinal match (and thus did not snap the streak), and Bencic resumed her winning ways with her unbeaten United Cup campaign. That result enabled former No. 4 Bencic, who came back from maternity leave in October 2024, to return to the Top 10 in the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time since March 2023.

And she feels she's still improving as a player.

"I think I definitely improved in my movement, I would say," Bencic said in her press conference when asked about her winning streak. "I also think my serve got more steady, better. I would say my net game, as well. I can see that mostly in practice. I still try to incorporate it a little bit more in matches. I mean, obviously I'm very good at taking the swing volleys. But I think the regular volley also got better."

Between February and March 2019, Bencic also notched 12 straight wins with an unbeaten Billie Jean King Cup campaign followed by her third career title in Dubai and a semifinal run in Indian Wells -- a streak ended by Angelique Kerber.

Against Boulter, Bencic delivered a dominant 26-minute first set in which she conceded only 10 points and did not face game point. The No. 113-ranked Briton got a foothold in the match in the second set, upping her intensity from the baseline to notch three solid holds. Bencic claimed the first break of the set for 4-3 via a stellar counter-drop shot, only for Boulter to break back immediately.

But from 5-4 down, Bencic began to spread the court and get Boulter on the move as she had in the first set, reeling off the last three games in a row and sealing match point with an emphatic drive volley.

"I was definitely being ready," she said. "That's how I started. I think I was very focused, very ready. I was also ready for it to become a little bit more tight. Of course sometimes it's not easy to win the first set 6-0."

Siegemund saves match points to defeat Samsonova; Bartunkova upsets Kasatkina on Grand Slam debut

A player who might empathize with that statement was Liudmila Samsonova. The No. 18 seed led Laura Siegemund 6-0, 5-2, and held two match points on the German's serve at 5-3. But the 37-year-old World No. 48 hung on, began weaving her web of spins and net-rushes, and emerged an unlikley 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 victor in 2 hours and 31 minutes.

The result was Siegemund's third consecutive Top 20 upset at the Australian Open -- she defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova in the 2024 first round and Zheng Qinwen in the 2025 second round -- and her fourth Top 20 win in the past five majors, having also ousted Madison Keys at Wimbledon and Diana Shnaider at the US Open last year.

Bencic will have the chance to set a new career-best winning streak when she takes on 19-year-old qualifier Nikola Bartunkova in the second round. The Czech teenager, who is making her Grand Slam debut this week, scored a 7-6(7), 0-6, 6-3 upset of home hope Daria Kasatkina in 2 hours and 3 minutes.

That match was notable not just for the result and the topsy-turvy scoreline, but Bartunkova announcing herself as a crowd-pleasing shot-maker. As early as the fifth game, she pulled a tweener out of her bag of tricks; though she lost that point, the World No. 126 delivered an array of volleys, drop shots and power strikes as the contest went on.

Bartunkova also showed impressive clutch instincts. Facing a second set point in the first-set tiebreak, she hammered a backhand winner down the line, then followed it with a clever drop shot-volley combination and a rocket of a forehand down the line to steal the set.