Barbora Krejčíková is a Czech tennis player from Brno, Olympic champion in doubles from Tokyo and the 2021 Roland Garros singles champion.
_03_(cropped).jpg)
Barbora Krejčíková is a Czech tennis player, a native of Brno [1]. She plays both singles and doubles and is among the Olympic champions in doubles [1].
Doubles and Olympic gold
She regularly travelled to New York for the US Open, but for a long time she played only doubles and mixed doubles in the main draw [1]. In doubles she played with Kateřina Siniaková, with whom she won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo [1]. Czech Television reports that the pair later defended their doubles title from Wimbledon. Because of an injury to Krejčíková, they withdrew from the tournament and so could not defend the title [2].
The singles path
At the US Open she tried five times without success to come through qualifying in singles, in 2014, 2015 and 2017 to 2019 [1]. In 2020 she withdrew from the tournament out of fear of the coronavirus. Under WTA rules she then was not allowed to play other tournaments either, which she described as a mentally difficult period [1]. She then continued her preparation on clay, reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros and for the first time got into the top hundred of the rankings. This gave her access to WTA singles tournaments [1].
In 2021 she won the clay-court Roland Garros and two more trophies. In the last six tournaments before the US Open she had a singles record of 25 wins and 3 defeats. She lost twice to the world number one Ashleigh Barty and once, at the Olympic Games, to the eventual winner Belinda Bencic of Switzerland [1]. According to reports from the end of August 2021, she moved up to ninth place in the rankings [1].
Background
At the time of her first US Open singles appearance, she was accompanied at tournaments in America by her coach Aleš Kartus and the American physiotherapist Jacob Meyer, with whom she had worked since Roland Garros [1]. She was earlier coached by Jana Novotná [1]. At the age of twenty-five she said that she was still learning and looking for the most suitable way to prepare [1].