World No. 8 Belinda Bencic, who missed two months during the clay season due to a back injury, said she feels fine now despite falling to Elena Vesnina, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), in Eastbourne.
Last week in Birmingham, the 19-year-old retired against Irina-Camelia Begu, but said her back was not the problem. In her first tournament back, in 's-Hertogenbosch, she reached the semifinals before losing to good friend Kristina Mladenovic.
With the injury behind her, she won’t rethink her game.
“Everyone has injuries at some point of their career, so I'm not the first person to get an injury,” she said. "Obviously, also girls my age, the other ones also had [a] little something. Even in the juniors, before. This was my first or second serious injury, so I just take it as a part of the job. It's nothing special. Obviously I have to be careful and do a lot of prevention, as well, but I think it's just part of the job.
"It happens to everyone. Doesn't matter how much you pay attention, or do that or do that.”
Bencic was the defending champion in Eastbourne. In 2015, she defeated Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska en route to the title. At Wimbledon shortly after, she went down in the fourth round to former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka. In August she won Toronto, knocking out Serena Williams in the semifinals and Simona Halep in the final.
She broke into the top 10 in February after reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, where she was beaten by Maria Sharapova. She picked up Fed Cup victories against Andrea Petkovic and Angelique Kerber after the season’s first Slam, but since then the Swiss has been pretty spotty.
She will be defending a good amount of points at the All England Club, but Bencic insists that she is not feeling any added pressure.
“Why would I feel pressure?” Bencic said. “Of course it's points, but every time someone is defending points somewhere. So I guess it's just a normal situation. [I] don't feel any pressure and [have] no expectation because I haven't played a lot of matches lately. Just have fun, and obviously I'm so glad to be back on the courts. So that's the most important.”