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Barbora Krejčíková has a good laugh
Photo:
JB Autissier / imago images / PanoramiC
There she was now, on the edge of the winners' podium, her feet dangling in the air, on her lap the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, which she had already cradled gently in her arms while listening to the Czech national anthem.
Barbora Krejčíková had her eyes closed, her chin resting on the lid of the trophy.
At that moment, the newly crowned French Open champion looked like that little girl who knew that she would love this sport since she hit the first balls at home.
It was a moment for her and her success.
This surprising success of this unseeded Czech, who should prove to be unbeatable in Paris.
It is an impressive ascent that the 25-year-old Krejčíková has achieved over the past few months.
At the end of 2019 she was number 135 in the tennis world rankings.
She started 2021 as 65th, after winning the WTA tournament in Strasbourg two weeks ago, she came to Paris as number 33 in the world.
With her final victory against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova - the twelfth win in a row on clay - she will climb another 18 places.
Particularly impressive during her appearances in Paris: the calm with which Krejčíková managed the numerous attempts that she needed to decide a match in her favor. She needed six match points in the quarter-finals against fellow favorite Cori Gauff, five in the semi-finals against Maria Sakkari, and four in the final against Pavlyuchenkova. At the same time, she was not worried by multiple set or match balls from her opponents.
However, Krejčíková revealed after her round of 16 against Sloane Stephens that she was by no means always self-confident in her games: "Half an hour before the game, I didn't want to go on the pitch because I felt really bad." She locked herself in the physio room and first have to speak to her psychologist: "I just felt very, very bad, and I don't know why."
She clearly won the game 6: 2, 6: 0.
A victory that showed her that she had no reason to panic, as she later said.
"I knew that if I put too much pressure on myself, I won't win." So she simply enjoyed her successes and the games she was allowed to play, said Krejčíková.
When they stood there on the podium for the best two players in Paris, it was tennis icon Martina Navratilova, who in turn told of an amazingly courageous 18-year-old. In 2014, this teenager cheekily stomped to the house of the great Jana Novotná - and asked the 17-time Grand Slam winner if she would not like to work with her. Impressed by this young woman, who was only just getting up from the 300-place, Novotná became a trainer, mentor and confidante of Krejčíková.
In Paris this special relationship was ubiquitous. In the press conferences, the interviews with the winners, the gestures towards heaven, the tears. From the tennis star, who died in 2017, she not only had this concentrated, even stoic way of downplaying one point at a time and giving everything up to the last point, said Krejčíková, for example. She also always inspired Novotná's down-to-earth, warm-hearted nature. “She always said to me: It doesn't matter how many titles you win, you always have to say hello, please and thank you. She was a great role model for me, I just want to be who she was. "
Krejčíková has been a relatively blank slate when it comes to the most important tournaments in the tennis world. For them, Paris was only the fifth Grand Slam main round ever. In single. Because that is also part of the vita of the unexpected heroine: In doubles, Krejčíková has long since reached the top of the world. At the side of Kateřina Siniaková, she has already won two titles, the first in 2018 - at the French Open. Immediately afterwards the success at Wimbledon. At the US Open she was in the semifinals in the same year. Krejčíková quickly became known as a double specialist. A label that she never liked.
“I was 22 when we won the first Grand Slams. And I thought: No, at 22 I don't want to be a dual specialist! I also want to play singles, I want to work hard, improve my game, and I want to play against the top players in singles, «said Krejčíková, who has also won the Australian Open three times in a row in mixed. "It was really frustrating that I couldn't do it, but I always thought: I'll get my chance at some point."
Most recently, training with the Czech players helped the single player Krejčíková.
Ten are currently among the top 100 in the world.
Above all, she benefited enormously from the sessions with the two-time Grand Slam winner Petra Kvitová.
The fact that she has finally reached the point where she can play against the best in her field, learn from them and gain experience, "that feels good," said Krejčíková after the quarter-finals against Gauff: "I always wanted to be here . "
Next the double?
The fact that she can now even top the greatest success of her career is in turn related to this drawer that she so reluctantly wanted to be put in, as Krejčíková and Siniaková are also in the final in the doubles competition.
There they meet Iga Świątek and Bethanie Mattek-Sands (Poland / USA) on Sunday (11.30 a.m.; TV: Eurosport).
The last time such a double was achieved in Paris was Mary Pierce in 2000. In 2016, Serena Williams celebrated success in singles and doubles in London.
Should the Czech duo win in Paris, they would also return to the top of the world rankings.
And Barbora Krejčíková could hold onto another trophy.