Jan 11, 2026
3 min read
Belinda Bencic maintained her unbeaten start to the United Cup season, delivering in both singles and mixed doubles to send Switzerland to their first final.Bencic lost in the singles against Elise Mertens and then won the mixed doubles against Belgium together with Jakub Paul.
Bencic's magical 8-0 start sends the Swiss into their first ever United Cup final
Switzerland reached their first United Cup final after a key performance from Belinda Bencic in difficult conditions against Belgium in Sydney on Saturday.Bencic improved to 8-0 in the tournament by winning four singles matches and four mixed doubles matches with Jakub Pauli.
Bencic opened the scoring for Switzerland with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (0) win over Elise Mertens.He then teamed up with Paul for a doubles tie, defeating Mertens and Jiju Bergs 6–3, 0–6, [10–5] in the decisive third doubles match.
United Cup: Results |Classification
"It's so unbelievable," Bencic said of Paulo on the pitch."I tell him to go and he goes. He's crazy.
"The spirit of the team is amazing and it starts with the captain (Stan Wawrinka). He supports me in all my games, then he goes to play his game, then he comes back to support two. It starts with him, but all the energy from our bench gives us the spirit to win."
Switzerland will await the winner of the second semi-final between the United States and Poland, both finalists from the 2025 edition. In any case, Bencic will have his first Top 5 opponent, either against No.2 Ribs Sviateck or No.4 Coco Gauff.
Bencic beat Mertens in 2 hours and 37 minutes to beat Switzerland 1-0 in the semifinals.Mertens had beaten Bencic in their only previous meeting in 2021, but the 28-year-old Bencic came in more impenetrable form, going 6-0 in the Swiss's first three matches.
While Mertens had tough back-to-back matches against Victoria Mboko and Barbora Krejcikova after straight-sets wins over Zhu Lin, Bencic didn't come close to dropping a set against Leolia Jeanjean, Jasmine Paolini and Solana Sierra to send the Swiss into the last four.
Bencic was two games away from a straight 6-3, 6-4 victory before Mertens pushed the match away.The Belgian spurned two chances to tie the second set at 5-5 before breaking serve to his Swiss opponent, having erased an earlier 3-1 lead.
That set the stage for a dramatic third set, in which Mertens came from 3-1 down, saved a pair of break points to give Bangkok a 4-1 lead, and was two points away from victory with Bangkok serving at 30-30, 6-5 down.
But Bencic won the last nine points of the match to seal the victory and decided to replace his racket with a new one at that point.
"I think I really outdid myself today. It was a bit strange. You're still in the same tournament, playing the semi-finals, but it's still a first-round match because it's a different site," Bencic told reporters."It's very special. It never happens normally in a normal tournament. I think that's how I felt. I think I was a little distant, maybe the whole match with myself, with my thoughts.
"I'm very happy and on some days like this when maybe you're very worried on the field or nervous, I realized that I have to leave all my emotions out."
In the men's singles, Bergs went 40-0 up on Stan Wawrinka's serve in the third set to go up 4-3 after back-to-back wins against world No.5 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No.18 Jakub Menzies.There were only six break points in the match at that stage.
Wawrinka, 40, a three-time Grand Slam champion in his 25th and final season, played inspired tennis to start his farewell season, breaking just once in four matches at a cost as he went 1-3 in singles matches during the tournament.
"Stan played well and I had to fight today," said Burgess, who won 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3.
Bergs overcame his latest disappointment in the Davis Cup quarterfinals, when he dropped seven points to Italy's Flavio Cobolli as he tried to send the points to two deciders, but the Swiss prevailed.
