We may roll our eyes at the sheer volume of the rising tennis stars paraded before us, and in some cases, we may sympathize with epic falls from grace that some may be experiencing. But could 18-year-old Belinda Bencic be about to turn this curse on its head?

Inevitably, much was expected of her after she scooped the French Open and Wimbledon girls’ titles in 2013, and she ably backed that up with a run to the quarterfinals of last year’s US Open. But the start of 2015 saw three successive opening-round defeats with just a Fed Cup win to her name before slowly starting to turn that around with stronger performances in Indian Wells and Miami.

A run to the final of s’Hertogenbosch saw Bencic display the kind of nuances on grass we were more accustomed from seeing from her famous compatriots, including coaching advisor Martina Hingis, and one Roger Federer. If we coast past her second-round drop in Birmingham, she more than made up for that in Eastbourne, where she stunned Agnieszka Radwanska in a breezy final. She even admitted to us in press that she has no idea why the Swiss have taken to grass like an alpine goat to a mountain, saying that the only grass in Switzerland was “where the cows are.”

Bencic took the fight in Toronto to what appeared initially to be an invigorated Simona Halep, who had gone through her own run of mediocre results. As fatigue, injury, and the heat started to trouble the world No. 3, Bencic kept her cool. After being perhaps understandably jittery in trying to tie up the championship, a commanding 3-0 lead in the deciding set saw Halep retire and Bencic seemingly break the run of rising stars failing to continue to soar in the light of either big results, or even better, big wins.

Maybe with the exuberance of youth, she will come to realize that being in the singles and doubles this week for a second straight Premier event may take its toll later down the line. For now, she can add another scalp as she outclassed Angelique Kerber in her opening round.

The key will be to handle the pressure and the expectation – something even the stars have trouble with sometimes. It will be enough to handle just backing up a great run, having risen to a ranking of No. 12 in the world, and she seems to be managing her expectations just fine – maybe targeting the WTA Finals instead of grandiose claims of being the next Grand Slam winner on the block.

The biggest ticket of the night in Cincinnati, meanwhile, was undoubtedly Roger Federer, playing in his first tournament since losing in the Wimbledon final to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

After a routine win over Roberto Bautista Agut, Federe admitted that there were still things to improve, having spent the day relaxing with his wife and children, before realizing he had a match to play.

He said, “I'm happy I got through this first one.  Now I know what it's about.  I have a day off tomorrow where I can think about how things went today, where I need to improve.  There is always a few things.  And then looking forward to see who I play on Thursday.”

In the closing news of the day, Venus Williams withdrew from her match against Ana Ivanovic in the final night match of the session with a viral illness, and Maria Sharapova withdrew with a continuing issue with the leg injury that prevented her from playing in Toronto. With that, Halep could be poised to regain the world No. 2 spot, if she can launch a run to the final.