Tenth-seeded and one of the most in-form players on the WTA Tour right now, Belinda Bencic will begin her 2026 Australian Open campaign against Katie Boulter in the first round. Bencic has been in tremendous form over the last year and a half, rising back to the Top 10 of the WTA Rankings after returning from maternity leave in the latter part of 2024.
Boulter began her season at the ASB Classic, where she won her first-round match 6-3, 6-3 against Yuliia Starodubtseva. However, the Brit faltered in the very next round, losing 5-7, 4-6 against top seed and eventual champion, Elina Svitolina.
Belinda Bencic vs Katie Boulter Details
Date: Jan. 20, 2026 (Jan. 19 in ET)
Tournament: Australian Open 2026
Round: First Round (Round of 128)
Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia
Surface: Outdoor Hard
Category: Grand Slam
Live Telecast: Tennis Channel, TSN, RDS, Sky Sports
Bencic vs Boulter Head-to-Head
Bencic has a 1-0 record against Boulter, having beaten the Brit 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3 in Tallinn in 2022.
Bencic has started her 2026 season with a bang, going undefeated in singles at the United Cup. Her run at the competition included wins over Leolia Jeanjean, Jasmine Paolini, Solana Sierra, and Elise Mertens, as she almost single-handedly carried Switzerland to the final. Even though they lost to Poland in the summit clash, the Swiss was at her best, winning 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 against Iga Świątek, her second against the Pole in seven attempts.
Bencic vs Boulter Prediction
Bencic won 31 of her 43 matches on hard courts last year, with the Swiss player winning the title in Abu Dhabi with a win over Ashlyn Krueger in the final. By the year’s end, she won another hard-court title in Tokyo, where she won against Linda Noskova in the final. The Swiss also reached the quarterfinals at the WTA 1000 event in Indian Wells, losing to Madison Keys.
Boulter won only 9 of 23 hard-court matches last year, which is a win percentage below 40. Her best hard-court run was a third-round appearance at Indian Wells, where she lost to Elena Rybakina. However, she got a bye in that event, so she only had one match in that tournament, meaning she could not win more than a single match at any of the hard-court events she played last year.
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Bencic has won 8 hard-court titles in her career from 13 finals on the surface, including two WTA 1000 titles and an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021. Boulter has reached two hard-court finals in her career, winning the only title on the surface in San Diego in 2024.
The career trajectories of both players have gone in opposite directions over the last year, as the Swiss player has come back to form, rising back into the Top 10, whereas the British player’s sharp decline has seen her drop below the Top 100 in the WTA Rankings.
That, along with the positive head-to-head, makes Bencic the favorite to win the upcoming match. The PFSN Simulator has put the Swiss players’ chances of winning at 78%.
Pick – Bencic to win in straight sets