In Swiss women's tennis, there was Martina Hingis.
Now there is Belinda Bencic.
The one that a whole country was waiting for and which did not disappoint.
By winning in three sets (7-5, 2-6, 6-3) against Czech Marketa Vondrousova, the 12th player in the world offered Switzerland a new title this Saturday, thirteen years after the pair Federer / Wawrinka, and almost thirty after that of the giant Marc Rosset.
In addition to the first women's title, it also allows Switzerland to win a tenth medal, which had not happened since 1952 in Helsinki (14).
And it's not over.
Hopp Schwiz! 🇨đź‡đźĄ‡
Congratulations to @BelindaBencic on winning the gold medal in women's singles đź‘Ź # Tokyo2020 #Olympics #Tennis pic.twitter.com/1QEuLtJfzm
- ATP Tour (@atptour) July 31, 2021
Belinda Bencic could just as easily have taken part in the marathon.
Apart from the first two fairly quiet rounds, the 24-year-old indeed had to play three sets in the following four rounds, including the final.
Winning seven WTA titles, she also reached the round of 16 in Melbourne and Wimbledon, as well as the semi-final of the US Open in 2019.
His tears of joy went around the world and more particularly on the side of Flawil, in the canton of St. Gallen.
It was there that she was born almost twenty years after the arrival of her father, who took refuge with her parents after the Prague Spring in 1968. She started playing tennis at the age of four with the mother of Martina Hingis, and it is also on a photo with Roger Federer that she poses proudly.
The Swiss tennis idol should even have accompanied him to Japan, but his knee decided otherwise.
How it started.
How it's going.
pic.twitter.com/eXahjvd8pU
- Tennis Legend (@TennisLegende) July 31, 2021
Belinda Bencic's great adventure in Tokyo is not yet over. Associated with Viktorija Golubic, she will try to win the women's doubles against the Czech pair KrejÄŤĂková / Siniaková, next night. And thus do better than his two compatriots Timea Bacsinszky and Martina Hingis, silver in Rio.