Bencic celebrates 'best day' yet after securing two medals in Tokyo
Belinda Bencic celebrated the "best day" of her career after victory in both the women's singles and doubles semi-finals on Thursday guaranteed her two medals - and the chance to bid for double gold - at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The 24-year-old Swiss defeated Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina in singles and then paired with Viktorija Golubic to see off Brazilian duo Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani in the women's doubles to become just the fifth player to reach both singles and doubles finals at the Olympics since tennis returned to the Games in 1988.
"This is for sure the best day [of my career], of course," she said. "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.
"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."
Only Venus Williams at Sydney 2000, Nicolas Massu at Athens 2004, and Serena Williams at London 2012, have completed a golden double in the Olympic singles and doubles events, but Bencic is on the cusp of joining that elite group.
It was a truly joyful day for the world No. 12, who has been in excellent form at these Games. Bencic saw off both recent Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova and runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in back-to-back three setters to reach the last four, and again displayed her resilience in a battling 7-6(2) 4-6 6-3 singles win over Rybakina.
Asked where she got the energy to succeed in both events, Bencic pointed to the atmosphere of a truly special event.
Bencic sunk to the floor in tears of delight after her singles win brought a Saturday showdown with world No. 42 Marketa Vondrousova, who conquered fourth seed Elina Svitolina.
“My emotions right now... it's too high,” she admitted afterwards. “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 follows in the footsteps of Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Timea Bacsinszky, Martina Hingis and Marc Rosset in claiming an Olympic tennis medal for Switzerland, but has gone one step further than her illustrious compatriots by ensuring she will depart Tokyo with two medals around her neck.
Switzerland is becoming accustomed to Olympic tennis success, with Bencic guaranteeing a Swiss tennis medal for the fourth consecutive Games.
Federer won singles silver at London 2012 and doubles gold with Wawrinka at Beijing 2008, while Bacsinszky and Hingis won doubles silver at Rio 2016.
Rosset is the only Swiss player to win a singles gold - at 1992 Barcelona - but, with Bencic in dreamland in Tokyo, you get the sense that might not remain the case for much longer.