On May 29, Barbora Krejcikova won the Strasbourg tournament.
The first tournament of his career.
Fifteen days later, she added a second title to her record: Roland-Garros.
After the Spanish Garbine Muguruza (2016), the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (2017), the Romanian Simona Halep (2018), the Australian Ashleigh Barty (2019) and the Polish Iga Swiatek (2020), Roland-Garros has, this Saturday , celebrated a new queen: the Czech Barbora Krejcikova (25 years old; 33rd world).
She dominated the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 at the end of a capricious, elusive, open, pleasant final.
The Russian summed up: "
It was difficult because there is no rhythm with it. I didn't know what to expect. It was weird. It didn't have too much consistency. Sometimes she will make the winning point and others the fault. It was hard.
Martina Navratilova was waiting for Barbora Krejcikova to hand her the trophy after a flawless tournament: Czech Kristyna Pliskova (5-7, 6-4, 6-2), Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (6-2, 6-3), l 'Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2, Americans Sloane Stephens (6-2, 6-0) and Corie Gauff (7-6, 6-3) and Greece's Maria Sakkari (7-5, 4-6 , 9-7), after saving a match point. This Sunday, the Czech will be on track again, in doubles, to try to win the title in doubles alongside her compatriot Katerina Siniakova (against the pair made up of the American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and the Polish Iga Swiatek). And join Mary Pierce is the last to have achieved the double in Paris, in 2000. In a press conference, natural, simple, she quietly shared her pleasure, her dream.
The weight of the title:
“
I am extremely happy. A dream becomes reality. It's really hard to put the words together right now because there are so many emotions, so many things going through my head. I'm just really happy that I was able to deal with it the way I did, mentally I think that was the biggest key. (…) I guess a lot will change. For me, I'm just going to be the little girl from my town, from my little town, who started playing on the wall. Probably nothing will change.
"
Jana Novotna (1998 Wimbledon winner who coached her for a long time, before her death in 2017):
“
Jana was really special to me. When I was 18, after the juniors, I didn't really know what to do. I went to her house with my parents. She was always very nice. When I found out she was sick, I just felt she was giving me so much of her experience, of her power, of her attitude. She taught me so many things… She watches over me. She wants me to win. She knows what it means to me, and I know what it would mean to her. "
Her psychologist:
“
I have spoken with her before every game that I play since I played against Sloane (Stephens, in the round of 16). It was really difficult. I have never been in such a situation in singles. I was panicking a bit. I really wanted to win. On the other hand, I knew that if I really wanted to win, I would put so much pressure on myself that it wouldn't happen. She just told me to go and enjoy. We talked about what to do when I was going to get nervous on the pitch. Simple things. She also gave me a lot of courage to go on court. It's a great achievement that nobody really expected, not even me.
"
