London | Olympic champion Bencic is pregnant

Belinda Bencic posted on her official account on Instagram that she and longtime boyfriend Martin Hromkovic are expecting their first child, with the caption ‘Expecting our little miracle soon! We can’t wait to meet you’, but there was no mention of when the baby is due.

Expecting our little miracle soon! We can’t wait to meet you. Belinda Bencic

Hromkovic is a Slovak professional soccer player who has doubled as Bencic’s fitness coach. The pair have dated for the past five years.

It seems that Bencic is remaining in the Swiss squad for the upcoming Billie Jean King Cup Finals, which start in Seville on 7 November, when Switzerland will be defending their crown in the team competition.

Switzerland are placed in Group A alongside USA and 11-time winning team Czech Republic.

Even if Bencic misses out because of her pregnancy, the Swiss team will be more than hopeful of retaining their title as they can call on the services of the likes of Viktorija Golubic and Jil Teichmann as well.

The 26-year old has been ranked as high as World No 4 in 2020, and has 8 career titles to her name, none bigger than her gold medal performance in Tokyo in 2021, when she beat Marketa Vondrousova for the Olympic title.

She also won doubles silver alongside Golubic at those Games.

Bencic helped lead the Swiss team to the Billie Jean King Cup title to close out the 2022 season, a historic first after runner-up finishes in the women’s tennis team event in 1998 and 2021.

She played her last tournament of 2023 in September in San Diego, where she lost in the 1st-round to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

Bencic’s announcement was met with a flood of congratulatory message from her WTA Tour peers, including Paula Badosa, along with Bencic’s Swiss teammate Golubic, Marta Kostyuk, who celebrated her own personal milestone this week with her marriage, Elina Svitolina, who returned from her own maternity leave this year and is a mom to 1-year-old Skaï, and best friend Donna Vekic.