“Coming to the tournament I tried to change my mind,” she explained during a press conference last week. As she prepared for last year’s autumnal French Open, having won only two matches at tour level all year, she decided to downgrade her expectations.
#Live tennis scores from roland garros crack#
Yet Krejcikova simply could not crack the singles game. They have had enormous success on the senior circuit too, rising to become the world’s highest-ranked pairing in 2018. She has always been vastly more successful at doubles, even as a junior, when she won three of the four major titles with her Czech compatriot and long-term partner Katerina Siniakova. Like Aslan Karatsev – the unknown Russian who reached the semi-finals of January’s Australian Open – Krejcikova used the pandemic as an opportunity to reboot her whole approach to the sport. Perhaps her story will turn out to have a biblical dimension, with seven years of feast to follow the famine. Instead, Krejcikova is 25, and had been toiling away on the circuit with little reward – in singles anyway – for the past seven years. This is not some fast-rising young starlet in the manner of Coco Gauff.
#Live tennis scores from roland garros cracked#
The ultimate Cinderella story reached its climax at Roland Garros, where Barbora Krejcikova – a player who only cracked the world’s top 100 in September – came through a searching three-setter to lift the French Open title. On the men’s side, nobody even attempts to double up, because of the extra physical demands of best-of-five-set tennis (despite the fact that Wimbledon is the only major where the men’s doubles has not been cut back to a shorter format).Īt the French Open, you have to go back to 2000, the summer of the all-conquering Mary Pierce, for the last example of a single player lifting two trophies here. It is extremely unusual to win both titles at the same slam. In the end there’s going to be a result’.” I’m like, ‘Let’s fight for every single ball. I actually went really relaxed today when I went on court. I’m having some pains in my leg,” she added. I can actually say that out loud right now. I woke up in the morning and I feel really tired. “It was really difficult,” said a relieved Krejcikova, even though an outsider would never have known it. The Czech pairing made a sensational start, claiming the first four games, and although there was a reaction, as there was always likely to be, they still held their nerve to claim a 6-4, 6-2 victory. Their opponents happened to include last year’s surprise singles champion, 20-year-old Iga Swiatek, playing alongside the experienced American doubles specialist Bethanie Mattek-Sands. How do we know? Because Krejcikova was back on the court on Sunday morning with her Czech compatriot Katerina Siniakova, this time playing the doubles final. Even her life-changing victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday failed to break her emotional equanimity. The French Open’s surprise singles champion, Barbora Krejcikova, has handled every aspect of this tournament with aplomb.