'This gold is for Federer' - Bencic reveals message from Swiss great inspired her to Olympic title

Newly-crowned Olympic singles tennis champion, Belinda Bencic, has dedicated her gold medal to Swiss great Roger Federer, whose pre-match message inspired her to victory in Tokyo on Saturday.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion has never won Olympic gold in the singles competition, collecting silver after losing to Andy Murray at London 2012 and bronze in the 2008 doubles event alongside Stan Wawrinka.

Not even Martina Hingis, the Swiss player who Bencic's career was inspired after, claimed an Olympic title. Her best result was silver in women's doubles in 2016 with Timea Bacsinszky.

The 12th-ranked Bencic beat Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 at the Tokyo Games for the first major title of her career and she'll also contest the women's doubles gold medal match on Sunday.

Bencic and Swiss partner Viktorija Golubic face the top-seeded Czech team of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.

IMAGE: AP