Iga Swiatek vs. Belinda Bencic: Who will win their Wimbledon rematch?

Iga Swiatek vs. Belinda Bencic

How do Swiatek and Bencic match up on grass? Pretty well, judging by the last time they played at Wimbledon. That was two years ago, in the fourth round, and the first two sets went to tiebreakers, before Swiatek pulled away in the third. Bencic had a lead, and seemed to have the match in hand, but Iga swiped it away at the last moment in the second set.

So whatever the result is this time, we can, hopefully, expect a competitive contest. While Swiatek leads their head to head 3-1, Bencic beat her in their other Grand Slam meeting, at the US Open in 2021. Bencic is also a player who has never done as well at Wimbledon—she’s hasn’t been past the fourth round—as her natural flat attack and early ball-striking would make you believe she should.

“I’m really excited for this match,” Bencic says. “I think we've had some good matches in the past. Obviously, she’s a player with a lot of quality.”

As she points out, there’s an intriguing stylistic contrast between the two.

“It’s going to be very interesting game to see,” Bencic says. “She plays very physical and puts a lot of spin on the ball. I think I take the ball really early, play a little bit more flat.”

Like Bencic, Swiatek has also gone farther at Wimbledon than ever before, and has looked more comfortable moving and defending on it than she has in the past.

“I feel like I developed as a player, and I had time to practice little bit more,” Swiatek says. “Match by match my confidence, for sure, went up.”

Swiatek is also serving harder, but the key shot on Thursday will still be her forehand. Will it be on or off? This year, it has been hard to predict from one match to the next. Earlier in the event, she lost her forehand completely against Caty McNally for five or six games, before reining it back in.

Bencic, as she says, takes the ball early enough, and hits it flat enough—especially with her backhand—that she can rush Swiatek. But Iga has the higher ceiling, and seems to have enough confidence in her game now that she won’t let a couple of misses turn into couple dozen. Winner: Swiatek