Muchová in elite society. Can you think of other Czech representatives in Grand Slam finals?

Grand Slam tournaments are the pinnacle of tennis and only the best manage to win one in their career. Major finals are one of the most watched sporting events of the year and thanks to our tennis players, they have recently become quite regular with Czech participation. Czech tennis also experienced great success in the 1990s. Let’s remember who before Karolina Muchová defended the Czech colours in the finals of these prestigious events.

In this article, we will focus on the most valuable results since the establishment of the independent Czech Republic, starting with the men. In the second half of the 1990s, when the Americans Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi ruled the world tennis. However, at the 1998 Australian Open, other players came to the fore and in the final, Chilean Rios played against Peter Korda.

Many sports fans will remember the triumph of the Czech player with the celebratory star after a used match point. Korda won his only Grand Slam title at the age of thirty-five.

His big dream was to become world number one. It didn’t take much, and a few months later, the Czech player succeeded. A single match was all that separated Korda from dethroning Sampras as world number one. This goal did not work out and also due to doping problems, 1998 was his last year on the ATP circuit.

Tomas Berdych

Together with the native of Valašské Meziříčí, we move on more than a decade. Tomas Berdych spent more than six years among the elite ten of the ATP rankings. Can you remember the number of Grand Slam finals in which his name has appeared?

If you chose number one, you’re right. Berdych has spent his career in the shadow of the star trio of Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and has not played more than one final at the majors. In his only appearance in a Grand Slam final, he lost in three sets to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon.

Achievements of Czech women tennis players

We will spend a little more time with the Czech female players. In this article, we will catch up with two outstanding tennis players whose successes made the 1990s more enjoyable for fans, even though they started earlier, in the era of Czechoslovakia.

Helena Sukova managed four Grand Slam finals in her career, but unfortunately she was unable to win any of them. The last one was in 1993 and her opponent was the phenomenal German Steffi Graf. She was winning titles at the majors like on a treadmill and Sukova lost to her twice 6:3.

The last story in the first article on Czech participation in Grand Slam finals takes us back to 1998. This year cannot be written in the history of Czech sport except in golden letters. Apart from Korda’s title at the Australian Open, Czech hockey players rewrote history by triumphing at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, and after all that came Wimbledon.

Jana Novotná, after two earlier final setbacks on the grass courts of the All England Club, faced France’s Tauziat and did not let her dream triumph slip away. After 6::4, 7::6 sets, the Brno native enjoyed triumph at the most prestigious tennis address in the world.

However, we will take a look at the other great finals of Czech players at Grand Slams in the next installment. There is still a diverse group of Czech tennis players to come. After all, let’s be glad that we have enough material on this topic.

Sources:: ESPN, WTA, ATP