Barbora Krejcikova had won the first singles tournament of her career the week before Roland Garros, in Strasbourg. But no one, not even her, would have imagined ending the fifteen in Paris by raising the cup named after Suzanne Lenglen. In addition, Marina Navratilova has been awarded by the Czech tennis legend, who celebrated twice in Paris, in 1982 and 1984, when she won her fourth consecutive big tournament at Roland Garros, completing the ‘Martina Slam’.
Before Krajcikova, 25, number 33 in the world at the start of the tournament, only another Czech had triumphed here, Hana Mandlikova, in 1981. Big names in tennis – like Jan Kodes, also in the stands to applaud, who the cup here in Paris he raised it in 1971 and 1972 – while Barbora, just her fifth major in the singles draw, at Roland Garros had finished in eighths and last year was still out of the top 100 in the world.
In one of the less noble finals of the red Grand Slam, and of the Grand Slam in general, today she overtook the 32-year-old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, world number 32, another luxury intruder on Saturday in three sets (6-1 2-6 6-4) of Roland Garros. It is not actually his first success in a big tournament, given that, until a few days ago little known in singles, he is instead an excellent double player. On Sunday the specialty final will also play here – the last to complete the double was Mary Pierce in 2000 – hoping to repeat the success of 2018, the year in which she also won at Wimbledon, while in mixed she took the last ones three ‘mixed’ titles at the Australian Open.
The first to believe in her even as a singles player was another Czech tennis greats, Jana Novotna, who took Krejcikova’s fate to heart after Barbora and her parents visited her in 2013 for advice. For years, before losing a long battle with cancer in 2017, the former Wimbledon champion coached her, following her on the minor circuit, believing in her chances. “I always think of her,” confessed Barbora in Paris. “Every time I go out on the pitch, I leave the pitch, I always think of her. I always wonder what she would say to me today, seeing me win all these games, and I’m very sad because I can’t hear her and she can’t tell me anything anymore. I think she would just tell me that she is very proud of me. ‘ Proud of her character, her constancy, her varied, fluid, modern but classic tennis approach, with which even today she has managed to defuse the power of Pavlyuchenkova. Surely playing a lot of doubles helped her develop all the strokes, but for a long time Barbora also felt a prisoner. “Everyone has put a label on me: you play doubles, you’re a doubles specialist. But I never wanted to be just that. I won my first two Grand Slams when I was 22, but I also wanted to play singles, work to improve my game, fight against the best. I always believed that sooner or later I would get there ». Yes, Jana from up there would be really proud of her.