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TL;DR news on Belinda Bencic at June 14, 2023

Bencic took a medical timeout midway through the third set to have the big toe on her right foot treated for an apparent blister. Bencic became the fifth player to reach two finals at the same Olympics since tennis returned to the Games in 1988, joining Serena and Venus Williams, Andy Murray and Nicolas Massu. But ultimately, Bencic guaranteed herself an Olympic medal in Tokyo by winning a tumultuous semifinal. Rybakina's five aces in that set alone helped her squeak past Bencic and even the score. Then, at Rio de Janeiro, 11th seed Petra Kvitovaand 14th seed Elina Svitolina met at this same stage, and both, like Bencic and Pavlyuchenkova, were the two lowest seeds in the top quarter of the draw. Bencic, however, ensured the set was history, ultimately, as she conjured two break points, taking the second of those to go up a set by being the recipient of a Pavlyuchenkova double fault. Bencic watched a match point come and go in the American's next service game before finally closing things out following a Pegula backhand error. Bencic won all four sets against Jessica Pegula and Misaki Doi. Playing for Switzerland, which produced Martina Hingis, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, Bencic understands the expectations. The pair upset two seeded teams in the first rounds of the tournament before losing to Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic, who will play for the gold, in the semifinals. Belinda will look to win Switzerland's first singles gold medal since Marc Rosset won in the men's singles event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Misaki Doi will have aspirations of her own in that regard, particularly playing on home turf, but it is Bencic who will be the favourite going into the match and rightly so. Doi is playing at home and will be highly motivated, but Bencic is a player with a higher level of skill and consistency and should win as a result.