Once a junior champion at Wimbledon, Belinda Bencic has reached the senior level quarterfinals for the first time after nine attempts. Not only that, the Swiss tennis star is also the last mother standing in the Grand Slam tournament—a comment that endeared her to the crowd at the All England Club after she defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova in the round of 16 on Monday. Bencic is a co-parent to daughter Bella with her husband and fitness trainer, Martin Hromkovic.
Here’s everything you need to know about Martin Hromkovic:
1. Both Martin and Belinda have Slovakian heritage.
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Belinda Bencic and Martin Hromkovic feed a kangaroo in Brisbane, Australia, 2022.
As Bencic notes on her website, she was born in Switzerland to Slovak parents “at a time when Czechoslovak-Swiss player Martina Hingis was one of the best tennis players in the world.” Bencic’s father arranged for her to train with Hingis’s mother Melanie Molitor daily from the age of seven. Like Bencic’s parents, Hromkovic was also born in Czechoslovakia.
2. He had a successful soccer career.
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The couple on their way to the court before the second round of the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic on September 29, 2021.
Born in 1982, Hromkovic played for several European clubs, including FK Inter Bratislava, OFC Russel Gabčíkovo, FK Slovan Duslo Šaľa, FC Družstevník Báč, MFK Vítkovice, FC Eilenburg, and ŠK Senec. His main position was at center-back.
3. Martin began working as a fitness coach in 2018.
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Bencic celebrates at the Tokyo Olympics with Hromkovic in 2021.
Bencic has had several tennis coaches over the years, including her father Ivan, but her longtime fitness trainer has been Hromkovic since 2018. “It came a little unexpected, but it’s an ideal situation…Fortunately, we can separate private and professional life well,” Bencic told Tennis World that year. “When I work, I really see him as a coach. I hope it stays that way. For him, the job is done when I’m fit. Martin was an athlete himself, a footballer. So he understands well when I’m nervous or tense.”
4. The couple became parents in 2024.
Bencic announced on her Instagram account in late 2023 that she was pregnant and due to give birth in 2024. The couple quietly married in April 2024. Their daughter, Bella, was born the same month.
5. He’s also a dog lover.
Bencic and Hromkovic also have a very cute dog that they adopted during lockdown named Paula. But if you scroll back far enough on Hromkovic’s account, you’ll see he also had another beautiful pup for many years, a cocker spaniel named Nela.
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.