Todd Woodbridge believes Belinda Bencic has deserved to win the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award, and the former 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion thinks the Swiss is one of the best female players without a Slam title.
After welcoming her first child in 2024, Bencic returned to the WTA Tour by winning a WTA125 (Challenger) tournament in Angers in December 2024. The 28-year-old Swiss continued with her strong return at the start of 2025, winning the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi before also making it all the way in Tokyo in late 2025. She also made her maiden Wimbledon semifinal this year - where she was beaten by eventual champion Iga Swiatek.
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Bencic, who was ranked outside the top-1000 when she launched her post-pregnancy comeback, has since returned to No. 11 in the world.
Woodbridge: Bencic is one of the best players without a Grand Slam I hope she achieves it
I agree [she should win comeback player of the year]. Vondrousova is probably close, but when I watch both of them over the last couple of years, and their life journeys. Vondrousova, I know she got injured, but I saw her lose interest for a while; she just didnt maintain the intensity.After winning Wimbledon, she found it harder, Woodbridge said on The Tennis Podcast.
Whereas Belinda Bencic just wanted to come back and succeed after having her child, and it just looked right for me. She also goes down for me, and I hope she achieves this. I think shes one of the best players never to win a major.
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Although Bencic has been one of the best players in womens tennis for the past decade, she only has two Grand Slam semifinals on her resume. Besides a semifinal showing at this years Wimbledon, the former world No. 4 also made the 2019 US Open semifinal.
Bencics biggest triumph remains capturing the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
