Czech performances at the Australian Open: Krejcikova and Siniakova celebrate title, others didn’t fare too well

For Czech tennis, 2021 was one of the best years ever. The first Grand Slam of the season suggested that this year could be quite successful as well. The Czech duo Krejcikova-Siniakova won the doubles title at the Australian Open, and the Czech number one reached the quarterfinals in singles as well. How did the other Czech tennis players fare at the first Grand Slam of the year? Who pleased and who disappointed the most? Did Czech tennis confirm its position as a world power?

Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková

Czech tennis achieved great success at the first Grand Slam of the season. It followed up the previous successful season. This is mainly thanks to the successful doubles campaign of Krejčíková and Siniaková. The best doubles players in the world confirmed their role as the biggest favourites for the title, in the final they managed to turn the unfavourable development of the match and reached the title from the Australian Open, for Bára and Katka it is already the 4th doubles Grand Slam title. The Czech pair currently has no competition and is rightfully the best doubles pair in the world.

Bara was also successful in singles, reaching the quarterfinals. She won the scalp of Azarenka, but in the semifinals she lost to Keys. In this match she gave her worst performance of the tournament, and she also suffered from health complications. Thanks to her advancement to the quarter-finals, she improved her ranking to 3rd place, with only 165 points separating her from second-placed Sabalenka.

Petra Kvitova

On the other hand, the performance of the two-time Grand Slam winner was a huge disappointment. Even before the tournament, she was not performing well at all. She has scored several losses to much weaker players, she is in a huge game crisis. At the Grand Slam, she just confirmed it. In the 1st round she got a debacle from Cirstea, so she was out of the tournament right from the start. Petra Kvitova’s grand slam agony continues.

Markéta Vondroušová

The first Grand Slam of the season was also quite successful for Vondroušová. Advancing to the 3rd round, a valuable win over Samsonova. She also had Sabalenka on the scoop, leading her 1:0 in sets. But then Belarus improved, and Marketa’s performance went downhill. Still, it was a good tournament for her, a good start to the season. Vondroušová also improved in the rankings, she moved into the top 40, she is currently ranked 38th.

Tereza Martincová

Czech tennis player won the Australian Open as expected, she dropped in the 2nd round to Giorgi’s racket. In the 2nd set she managed to get out of the unfavourable situation until the tiebreak, which unfortunately did not work out. Martincova will have to wait for a bigger Grand Slam success.

Marie Bouzkova

Not much was expected from Bouzkova. Her tournament journey ended in the 2nd round. She failed to beat Estonia’s Kanepi, who reached the quarterfinals. What can I say about Maria’s performance? 2nd round of a Grand Slam is not a bad result at all. Last season really didn’t work out for her, her performance progress has stopped. Hopefully, this result will kick-start her and she will do much better this season than the previous one.

Jiří Veselý

Jiri Vesely was supposed to be the best Czech male hope. However, Veselý was similarly disappointing as Kvitova. He dropped out in the 1st round, losing in 3 sets to American Kozlov. Unfortunately, his playing woes continue. He doesn’t really seem to be progressing. Veselý had the potential to be a good player, but he couldn’t fulfill it. The Czech player is past his prime. It is highly likely that his remaining career will only go downhill.

Jiří Lehečka

The performances of other Czechs were much more positive. Jiri Lehecka advanced to the main draw for the first time in his career, a great achievement for the young Czech, he reached a major milestone. Unfortunately he had a very difficult draw in the 1st round of the tournament, his opponent was Bulgarian Dimitrov.

But Lehečka was not afraid of the big favourite, he even took one set from him. In his case, he is just gaining experience that he can use later in his career. Lehecka is one of the Czech hopes, but he will need time. Let’s see how he will fare in the future.

Tomas Machac

The Czech tennis player has a huge potential, which he confirmed in the last season. At the Australian Open he successfully passed the qualification, lost in the 2nd round to Cressy and equalled his Grand Slam best. Cressy was definitely a playable opponent, his close loss was decided by experience. The same applies to him as it did to Lehecka.

We don’t expect any big results from him at Grand Slams at the moment. He will need time and space to develop his talent fully. If that happens, maybe we will have a player who will be able to regularly advance to the 2nd week of Grand Slams again. Only time will tell if he can do that. But he’s got a good start.

Source: Australian Open