Current state of Czech women’s tennis. What was, is and will be? Summary after the French Open

For several years now, the whole world can envy us both the quality and quantity of Czech players on the WTA circuit. Probably everyone knows names like Petra Kvitová, Karolina Pliskova, Barbora Strýcová, Lucie Šafářová, Andrea Hlaváčková or Lucie Hradecká.

These players also participated in the Fed Cup triumphs from 2011 to 2018. During these 8 years, Petr Palá’s charges celebrated 6 times winning the famous trophy. Their winning streak was broken in 2013 by Italy and 4 years later by the USA. There was talk of an amazing generation that hadn’t been here for decades, if ever.

This generation of tennis players, of course, collected individual trophies and awards in addition to team success. I’ll just mention the very biggest ones. Petra Kvitova is a two-time Wimbledon winner from 2011 and 2014. She also won the Masters tournament. She has played many seasons in the top 10 of the WTA rankings. In her most successful year, 2011, she reached her all-time high as world number two.

Barbora Strycova did not fall out of the top 100 between 2008 and 2020. She was therefore a member of the world’s top singles team for many years. In doubles, it’s even better. Since 2009, she has always been among the top 50 players in the rankings. 3 years ago, she won the Wimbledon title alongside Su-Wei Hsieh. This result catapulted her to the number one doubles position in the world.

The other players mentioned have also been more successful in doubles. Lucie Hradecka is a two-time Grand Slam champion. In 2011, which was a very successful year for Czech tennis, she won the French Open alongside her long-time partner Andrea Hlaváčková, and 2 years later also the US Open.

Lucie Šafářová also collected many valuable successes in her rich career. In singles, her worst ranking was 63rd between 2005 and 2017. Here again, the trophies are mainly from doubles. Lucie is even a five-time Grand Slam winner (2x US Open, 2x Australian Open and 1x French Open). She lifted all of these trophies over her head with her lifelong friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Karolina Pliskova is still waiting for her grand slam. On the other hand, she got the privilege to try for the world number one position in 2017. For the last 8 years she has been a permanent member of the elite world top ten.

Some of those mentioned have already retired. Others have put it on hold due to maternity leave or injury. The Czech Republic currently has such a wide base of female players that new faces keep appearing and continuously filling the holes.

Barbora Krejcikova has certainly seen the most visible improvement in recent years. At first she focused mainly on doubles play. And, as is customary for Czech tennis players, she has been very successful. Alongside Katerina Siniakova, she has won four Grand Slam titles, a win at the Championships, and the Olympics. Even in singles, she has reached the absolute top of the world within 2 years.

She finished the 2020 season ranked 65th in the world. Today Barbora is 14th and before FO she was even ranked 2nd. In a breakthrough last season, she won her debut singles title at Strasbourg on 29 May and 13 days later she was able to celebrate a shocking victory at Roland Garros. Krejcikova is currently 26 years old and has many years ahead of her.

Other players are no different. The other members of the TOP 100 are of a similar age. 49. Markéta Vondroušová, 60. Tereza Martincova, 64. Marie Bouzkova, 65. Kateřina Siniaková and 81. Karolína Muchová. Markéta Vondroušová is only 22 years old and she has already reached the final of the Olympic Games or the French Open. So there is a high expectation that she will delight us with her performances for many more seasons.

But Markéta is far from alone in contributing to the future of women’s tennis in our country. In two years, Linda Fruhvirt has moved up almost 600 places in the rankings. She has 3 ITF titles and several very valuable scalps.

For example, she emerged victorious in her match against former world number one Victoria Azarenka. Among the other big names I’ll mention Ana Konjuh and Elise Mertens. Linda is only 17 years old and experts predict a great future for her. Linda has a younger sister, Brenda. Still 2 years younger than the prodigy sisters, she managed to conquer 2 ITF tournaments. She’s skyrocketed in the last year, moving up nearly 700 spots.

Also on the rise is 17-year-old Lucie Havlickova. Equally young is the winner of the junior French Open, Linda Noskova. She even managed to break into the main draw of the adult Grand Slam for the first time this year. She didn’t make it past the first round, but there were words of praise for her performance. Instead of the FO, she played on clay in Croatia, where she reached the semi-finals and moved up to 139th place in the rankings.

Sara Bejlek has already won two ITF titles. Nikola Bartůňková is also rising up the WTA rankings. Both girls are still only 16 years old. The Czech Republic still has a lot of irons in the fire. Our tennis is one of the world’s best. It is true that several successful players from the last few years have already retired from professional careers, are devoting themselves to their families or are increasingly plagued by various injuries.

But there are plenty of skilled female players growing up on local courts, and they have been watching their tennis role models on TV for several years now, hoping that one day they will rise to the occasion. Let’s hope that the coaches manage to forge these handcuffs into the ideal form and that in the future, thanks to these names, Czech women’s tennis will remain at the very highest level, because that’s where it definitely belongs.

One final comparison. Adult FO is the worst Grand Slam in the last 5 years in terms of results of Czech players. No Czech has made it past the 3rd round. The junior tournament was completely different. Czech women’s tennis has once again become an object of admiration for the whole world. In singles, the Czech girls took 3 of the 4 semifinal spots. Among the top 4 at the junior Roland Garros were Nikola Bartůňková, Sára Bejlek and also the winner of the whole tournament, Lucie Havlíčková.

To make matters worse, the doubles final looked the same. Of the 4 finalists, 3 were from the Czech Republic. On one side Nikola Bartůňková and Celine Naef and on the other side their conquerors, Sara Bejlek and Lucie Havlíčková. Lucie has conquered both singles and doubles and is therefore a double junior Grand Slam champion.

All indications are that we don’t have to worry about the future of women’s tennis. Hopefully there is a lot to come in the next few years.

Source:: Livesport, Wikipedia, Twitter