According to the Associated Press on Friday, reigning Olympic women’s singles gold medalist Belinda Bencic of Flawil, Switzerland is pregnant. Bencic made the announcement on Instagram.
Bencic is having the child with boyfriend, Slovakian soccer player Martin Hromkovic. In addition to being a high-performance athlete for OFC Russel Gabcikovo in Slovakia, Hromkovic has also been Bencic’s fitness coach. It is rather interesting that there is a 15 year age gap between Hromkovic and Bencic, as Hromkovic is 41 years years of age, while Bencic is 26.
It has been a while since the tennis world has seen Bencic. She has not played since the first round of the San Diego Open on September 11, when she lost to Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Bencic’s last win came on September 1, when she beat Lin Zhu of China, 7-6, 2-6, 6-3, in the third round of the 2023 United States Open. It was a dominant first set tiebreak for Bencic, as she won 7-1.
Bencic is currently 14th in the world. She has a career high ranking of fourth in the world in 2020.
In her career, Bencic has eight singles titles. Two titles came in 2023. She defeated Daria Kasatkina of Russia in the final of Adelaide 6-0, 6-2, and then Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, 1-6, 7-6, 6-4 in the final of Abu Dhabi. The second set tiebreak was very tight as Bencic won 10-8. Both the tournaments in Adelaide and Abu Dhabi, were at the 500 level.
Bencic is not the first high performance tennis player to fall in love with a soccer player. In January of 2022, the 2017 United States Open champion Sloane Stephens of Plantation, Florida, married United States soccer star Jozy Altidore of Livingston, New Jersey. In 2014, 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic married German soccer player Bastian Schweinsteiger.
