In the Swiss media, Belinda Bencic’s career has often been associated with catchphrases like “The Big Plan” and “The Project” for good reason.
She was still two months away from birth when a 16-year-old Martina Hingis won her first grand slam title in Australia.
Bencic’s father, Ivan — a tennis enthusiast and former ice-hockey player — watched that final on television and, impressed by the “Swiss Miss”, decided his daughter would be a tennis player.
Two years later, he handed her a racquet and Bencic was hitting balls for an hour every day. By the age of four, the little girl was following a systematic training schedule.
A couple of years later, The Big Plan received a major boost when Melanie Molitorova, the mother and coach of Hingis, decided to take Bencic under her wing.
The teenager has been in the headlines ever since with her enthusiastic home media hailing her as the “Swiss Miss version 2.0”.
At age 18, Bencic seems to be finally living up to that tag.
Hingis had four grand slam titles before she celebrated her 18th birthday, so any comparisons would be naive, but Bencic is certainly moving in the right direction.
She was No 212 at the end of 2013 and, 12 months later, she closed the year at No 33, becoming the youngest player to reach the last eight of the US Open since Hingis in 1997 and picking up the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year award for 2014.
Bencic did not have a great start to 2015, making first-round exits at her first three tournaments. She then struggled to make an impact on European clay, losing her opening-round matches at Prague, Madrid and Rome before losing to Madison Keys in the second round at the French Open.
Grass was a lot greener for her.
Arriving at the Topshelf Open in the Netherlands with a 10-13 record, she reached the final of the tournament.
She then defeated Keys, Eugenie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska to win the title at Eastbourne — her first title on the WTA Tour.
On Sunday in Toronto, Bencic picked up her second title, eclipsing six of the biggest stars of the tour to improve her post-French Open record to 21-4.
Starting the week with a win over home favourite Bouchard, she improved her record against Wozniacki, a former No 1, to 3-0 with a straight sets win in the second round.
Bencic then saved a match point to down Sabine Lisicki and later knocked out another former world No 1 Ana Ivanovic.
Then came the big moment.
In the semis she bounced back after losing the first set to stun the reigning world No 1 Serena Williams.
Bencic, who was just two years old when Williams won her first major title in 1999, is the youngest player to beat the American in a completed match since Maria Sharapova in the 2004 Wimbledon final.
This win could be the herald for a new dawn.
Sloane Stephens, tagged the “next Serena”, has struggled to cope with the spotlight following her win over Williams at the Australian Open in 2013, and Bouchard, hailed as the “next Sharapova”, is in the middle of a nightmarish sophomore slump.
The “new Hingis” might not be such a distant reality.
Bencic and her big plan seem firmly on course.
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