Switzerland, led by Belinda Bencic’s unbeaten singles and mixed doubles record, advanced to the United Cup semifinals with a 2-1 win over Argentina in their quarterfinal tie in Perth.
Bencic, ranked No. 11 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, stayed unbeaten to start the season with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Solana Sierra in singles. It was her partnership with Jakub Paul in mixed doubles, though, that sent Switzerland to Sydney, where they will face the winner of Czechia and Belgium.
United Cup: Scores | Standings
Bencic and Paul cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 win over Maria Lourdes Carle and Guido Andreozzi to secure the tie, and have now won all three mixed-doubles matches they have played this week. The pair was in red-hot form throughout the 68-minute showdown in the RAC Arena. In men’s singles, Argentina’s Sebastian Baez also maintained his perfect start to the season, defeating Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 6-4 to level the tie prior to the mixed-doubles decider.
Against Sierra, Bencic broke serve in the third and seventh games of the opening set and took it 6-2. The second set followed the same pattern, and she closed out the victory in 1 hour, 17 minutes in Perth.
The 28-year-old has all her singles matches in Perth in straight sets, after earlier defeats of France’s Leolia Jeanjean and Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in group play. Bencic returned from maternity leave late in the 2024 season and rose from No. 421 in January 2025 to No. 11 by year’s end, spearheaded by 500 titles in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo. She also reached the Wimbledon semifinals.
“It’s a great feeling to start a season well,” Bencic said to reporters. “It’s what you hope for to kind of keep going how last season ended. So, of course, to keep the momentum.
“It gives you a lot of confidence that you come out of the blocks pretty good, and you already have so much play before Australian Open is always very important, I would say. So we definitely have that. Now I think it’s time to focus on Sydney.”
Highlights: Bencic earns Switzerland 1-0 lead in Perth United Cup quarterfinal
In the second singles match, Baez earned just his second career top 10 victory earlier in the week against Taylor Fritz in group play. He backed it up with another strong performance against the 40-year-old Wawrinka, who had earlier posted a dramatic three-set win over Arthur Rinderknech.
The seven-time tour-level winner saved all five break points he faced and pressured the former world No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings with his flat, penetrating groundstrokes. Baez has now won three matches at a tour-level hard-court event for only the second time in his career, previously doing so en route to the title in Winston-Salem in 2023.