Will Belinda Bencic reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time? She offers a cryptic account of her arm injury

The second and decisive week of Wimbledon begins on Monday, and only Belinda Bencic is still flying the flag for Swiss Tennis. The 28-year-old from Eastern Switzerland will face Ekaterina Alexandrova (WTA 17) in the round of 16 on Monday. The 30-year-old Russian is the highest-ranked player Bencic has faced in the current tournament.

Bencic has played against Alexandrova eight times – and won four times. In their last encounter two weeks ago in Bad Homburg, however, the Russian had won 6-1, 6-2. Bencic had returned to the circuit after another enforced break. She had previously injured one of her arms in Rome at the beginning of May. She hasn't discussed the nature of the injury. Before Wimbledon, she said cryptically: "We'll manage it." Her form was good.

But it's also a fact: As rapid as her comeback was last fall after her maternity leave, it has stalled recently. In February, Bencic won her first tournament as a mother in Abu Dhabi, the ninth title of her career. Since then, however, she has played only 16 matches, with nine wins and seven losses.

Bencic isn't fazed by her lack of competitive practice. On Saturday, after her victory against the much lower-ranked Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto (6:4, 3:6, 7:6), she said that she wasn't yet at her best following her injury break. The match was a battle that took a lot of nerves. "But now I feel physically fit again, and I don't think I've wasted much energy on my way through the tournament so far." In the first week of the tournament, Bencic had to go over three sets in two of her three matches.

Step by step, she's getting closer to the best again after beginning her comeback in Hamburg at the beginning of November. She's ranked 35th, and after Wimbledon, Bencic will return to the top 30 in the world. But she doesn't attach too much importance to that. "Whether a player is in the top 10 or the top 100 doesn't always matter. Often, the form of the day is more important."

In her eighth Wimbledon appearance, Belinda Bencic has reached at least the round of 16 for the fourth time. But she's never advanced beyond the round of 16. Her opponents in those matches were prominent names: Viktoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber, and Iga Swiatek. Now it's time for Bencic to break the spell.

Her new role as a mother could help her in this regard. She has a modern relationship with her partner and fitness trainer Martin Hromkovic, in which the two share parenting responsibilities. During tournaments, her father is little Bella's primary caregiver.

He watched Saturday's match on Court 18 with his daughter from the so-called media balcony, a stand suspended high above the court. When Bencic saw Hromkovic there without their daughter, it caused a moment of shock. "Where is Bella?" she wondered. More than just a tennis player, she's now a mother.

The mystery was solved during her opponent's bathroom break. Her father had temporarily dropped the one-year-old off at the All England Club daycare center. Rather than watching her mother play tennis, Bella still plays herself, albeit not with a tennis racket.

Motherhood has made Bencic mature considerably. She appears much more relaxed today than in her early years on the tour, when she would occasionally completely lose her composure and thus her concentration on the court. Now she's more relaxed.

Last fall, she said in an interview with the NZZ newspaper: "I can put many things into perspective better today. Tennis was my life, and the sport is still important to me. But I know today: There's more to life than just the court."

But the ambition to win matches and perhaps soon even a Grand Slam tournament lives on in the 2024 Olympic champion . Why shouldn't the title come in a week at Wimbledon? After Saturday's match, she said she was immensely relieved to have prevailed. The five hours it lasted, including the rain break, definitely felt that long.

"It was windy, and then there were the rain interruptions. There are certainly things I can improve. But I stayed calm in the important moments." But in essence, only one thing counts: Belinda Bencic is still in the tournament at the start of the second week of Wimbledon. A first partial goal has been achieved. But nothing more.