KREJCIKOVA’S WIMBLEDON TITLE ESTABLISHES HER AS ONE OF THE ALL-ROUND GREATS OF HER GENERATION
Author: head.com Date Posted:15 July 2024
KREJCIKOVA’S WIMBLEDON TITLE ESTABLISHES HER AS ONE OF THE ALL-ROUND GREATS OF HER GENERATION
Another glorious chapter in the history of Czech tennis has been written by HEAD tennis ambassador Barbora Krejčíková, who has triumphed in London by winning the Wimbledon women’s singles title. After a year plagued by injuries and several illnesses, Krejčíková bounced back to beat Jasmine Paolini in Saturday’s final.
The 28-year-old Krejčíková was the surprise champion in Paris three years ago when she won Roland-Garros, but that title looks less of a shock now she has won her second singles major. She already had 10 Grand Slam women’s and mixed doubles titles to her name, as well as an Olympic gold in doubles from Tokyo 2020, making Krejčíková one of the great all-round players of her era.
The Czech has had a tough year. After making the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, she went through a succession of illnesses and injuries, and even thought of giving up tennis. Having started 2024 at 10th in the women’s rankings, she won just three matches between the Australian Open and Wimbledon, arriving in London ranked 32.
Krejčíková comes from Brno, the city from which an earlier Czech Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna hailed. Novotna acted as a mentor for Krejčíková for three years before her death from cancer in 2017, and Krejčíková credited Novotna’s input for her Wimbledon title.
“I was working with Jana Novotna,” Krejčíková told the crowd after her semi-final victory over Elena Rybakina. “She won it here in 1998. She was telling me a lot of stories about her journeys here and how she was trying to win Wimbledon. I was so far when we had this talk and now I’m here. I have so many beautiful memories and when I step on the court here I’m just fighting for every single ball because I’m sure that’s what she would want me to do.” Krejčíková was then overcome with emotion at the memory of Novotna, before adding, “I miss her so much.”
During her Wimbledon run, Krejčíková admitted that she likes building Lego models during rain breaks and other waiting time at tournaments. She has many Lego sets, and often gets given new architectural challenges from members of her team. “I did the Milky Way set a couple of weeks ago, I’m a fan of Harry Potter so I do a lot of Harry Potter sets. If there’s a Lego set of the Centre Court, I’ll do it!”
Krejčíková is the seventh Czech player to reach the women’s singles final, and the fifth to have won the title (after Navratilova, Novotna, Kvitova, and Vondrousova). At Wimbledon she was watched from her players’ box by the last Czech man to win a singles title at Wimbledon, Jan Kodes.
Krejčíková endorses the HEAD Extreme range of racquets.