After some phenomenal results in the juniors over the last few years, Belinda Bencic began 2014 with one goal - to make a name for herself in the big leagues.
Barely in the Top 200 when the year started, it seemed like a longshot, but oh what a year it was for the Swiss.
It didn't take long for the top players to take notice of her - after a hard-fought first round win over Kimiko Date-Krumm, Bencic took on Li Na in the second round of the Australian Open, dropping the first set at love in just 22 minutes but asserting herself in a big way in the 58-minute second set, coming within two points of taking the set in a tie-break but eventually falling to Li in straights, 6-0, 7-6(5).
"She played exactly like Martina Hingis," Li, who would go all the way to the title, said of Bencic. "She was using a lot of my power to move me around and make me run a lot out there on the court." That was just the beginning. As a No.140-ranked qualifier, Bencic would storm into the semifinals of the Premier-level clay court event in Charleston in April, breaking the Top 100 afterwards - the first player born in 1997 or later ever to break that elite.
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