Belinda Bencic: I AM yet to decide about playing the US Open

World No. 8 Belinda Bencic, of Switzerland, says she is still not sure if she will play the US Open in New York in August.

The WTA Tour is set to resume in early August and the US Open is scheduled to start on August 31 in New York, The tournament is being planned under strict hygiene and safety requirements and without spectators. Although the number of new infections has been falling for weeks in New York, cases in many other US states such as Florida or Texas have been rising as compared to before.

Belinda Bencic on the US Open

Speaking to Keystone-SDA, Bencic says, "I'm still considering what I think about the US Open. For the less well-ranked players who have not earned anything for a long time, it is very good to be able to compete again. (However), you can't lie around the hotel for 18 hours and then get a top performance on the court. It is important to be able to clear your mind. 

Bencic said she also learned to be patient and adapt during this time. "I tried to stay positive despite all the bad news. But it was a strange feeling that I didn't have a real goal. I wanted to train, but I didn't know why."

The 23 year old Bencic has been spending the past few months in Slovakia with her boyfriend, and last week, she won the exhibition tournament in Bratislava over Viktoria Kuzmova, She is also scheduled to play another exhibition event in the Slovakian capital next week before she travels to Switzerland, where she will be involved in the Interclub, among other things.

Several other top players, who are currently based in Europe during the lockdown, have expressed concerns about travelling to the United States for the tournament.

Belinda Bencic has a career-high WTA ranking of No. 4 in the world which she reached in February 2020. Bencic has won four singles and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open, qualifying for her first WTA Finals where she reached the semifinals, and finishing the year inside the top 10 for the first time, which helped her win the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award in 2019. As a junior, Bencic was ranked No. 1 in the world and won two junior Grand Slam singles titles at the French Open and Wimbledon. 

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2ZdewsQ