You know that last post about What to do When Your Fave is Losing? Yeah, Krejcikova bounced back pretty well… she only went and won Wimbledon!
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Unadulterated Joy!
Category: Tennis
Tennis is a brutal sport. Every week, every single player but one loses. However when you’re on a losing streak it must be soul destroying. At the moment. Barbora Krejcikova can’t get a win for love nor money. This week she was knocked out in the first round of Roland-Garros once again, losing in straight sets to Viktoria Golubic of Switzerland. Since winning the title in 2021 Krejcikova has not managed to get a win in singles – or doubles – at Roland-Garros.
After a run to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in January, Krejcikova has not won a match since Abu Dhabi in February – and even that was a withdrawal from Sara Sorribes Tormo. Her last completed match win was the Australian Open fourth round against Mirra Andreeva. Since that time she has missed a lot of tournaments due to illness and injury, and since coming back it has been loss after loss after loss with Barbora just not getting any run of form.
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Ciao Bella!
Quick hello from Rome! My first day today at the 1000 event here, saw wins for lots of my favourite players. Kerber, Haddad Maia, Vondrousova also Siegemund (once again left in the lurch by the late withdrawal of Barbora Krejcikova in doubles) Putinseva and Tauson looked good. I also watched a bit of Danielle Collins and Hsieh Su-Wei practicing (not together.. or the idea of that is intriguing!!) Collins belting everything, Hsieh putting away shots at the net for fun.
Rain storm soaked me and everyone else mid-afternoon, but looking forward to one more day tomorrow before heading home and following the rest on tv! Siniakova, Sakkari, Sabalenka.. 😀😀😀
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Match of the Year!
In an absolute classic of a match, Iga Swiatek beat Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the 2024 Mutua Madrid Open, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) today. This is Swiatek’s first Madrid title and her 20th title overall. She saved 3 match points, before Sabalenka hit the @6th shot of the tiebreak long, and the Polish player fell to her back in an emotional celebration.
The level of this match was extremely high, with the world number 1 and number 2 going head to head for 3 hours 14 minutes. An outstandingly good match that is definitely the match of the year and one of the highest level women’s matches ever – on a par with (if not even better than) the classic 2023 Australian Open between Sabalenka and Rybakina.
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Danimal Dominates!
The last few weeks have been all about American Danielle Collins. The self-styled ‘Danimal’ won the WTA 1000 in Miami and the WTA 500 in Charleston back to back, beating everyone with a dynamic, aggressive style of play that brings to mind the way she demolished a young Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open in 2022. To date, that was the biggest moment of her career, when she reached the final before being outfoxed by Ash Barty in what would prove to be Barty’s swansong.
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New Beginnings..
New Year and new beginnings for me as a tennis watcher. 2023 ended with my favourite player Petra Kvitová, announcing her pregnancy on New Year’s Eve. While great news for Petra, at the age of 33 and her baby due in the summer. the chances are this might be it for her tennis career. At the moment I’m still in denial and hoping for a comeback.
Consequently, 2024 is a bit different for me in terms of watching tennis.
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Chinese Takeaways
There was success in Asia for some of my favourite players. Best performance was probably by Katerina Siniakova who made back to back 250 finals, losing to Leylah Fernandez in Hong Kong but beating fellow Czech Marie Bouzkova in an epic 3hr+ final in Nanchang.
Siniakova is an exciting, aggressive player to watch when she is in form, and for these 2 weeks, she was playing high level, patient tennis. The match against Bouzkova was notable in the way she turned the match around after being a set and a break down. Siniakova changed her tactics, reigned in her big shots and outlasted Marie. She also avenged her loss to Fernandez, beating the Canadian in the semi-final.
With this, Katka is back into the top 50 and won two titles in a season for the first time since 2017. Her backhand is one of the best on the tour, she’s fast around the court and great at the net. I’d love to see her break the top 30 finally in 2024.
Barbora Krejcikova also had some good results, making the final of the 500 event in Zhengzhou but lost out in the final to a motivated Qinwen Zheng, an exciting young player who made the most of a supportive crowd and a slightly erratic Krejcikova.
In Zhuhai, Krejcikova was the top,seed in the Elite Trophy, but lost out in a tired round robin match to Daria Kasatkina. Qinwen rode the momentum but was beaten in the final by another of my low key favourite players, Beatriz Haddad Maia in a terrific final, with Bia also,winning the doubles.
With just the WTA finals and BJK Cup finals to go, the 2023 season is almost at an end.
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Double delight in San Diego!
After a lean period for Barbora Krejcikova, this was a week to remember at the San Diego WTA500 event. She won the singles title, defeating Sofia Kenin in three sets, and then she and Katerina Siniakova teamed up to take the doubles title as well. The last time Krejcikova did this was, of course, the Roland Garros, 2021 singles and doubles double.
These last months have been tough going for us Krejcikova fans. It all started so well when she won the title in Dubai back in February, however, there followed a string of unlucky draws where she was defeated by Aryna Sabalenka in Indian Wells, Miami and Stuttgart. Then a dismal clay-court season, saw Krejcikova very out of sorts and splitting with her longtime coach Ales. What was worrying was her demeanour on court. One match that springs to mind was the defeat to Ostapenko in Rome. Anyone can lose to Ostapenko but Krejcikova was a long way up and well on top in the first set, and then completely collapsed. Barely won a point after that alarming slump.
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Czech lefty wins Wimbledon!
… But sadly, not Petra! Wimbledon 2023 is in the books and an unexpected Wimbledon champion. The talented young lefty, Marketa Vondrousova from the Czech Republic is Wimbledon champion after a win in straight sets over Ons Jabeur in the final. Honestly, this was looking like Ons Jabeur‘s year. Having lost the final last year, she had the toughest of draws, beating Bianca Andreescu, Petra Kvitova, Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka to reach the final. She faced world number 42 and surprise finalist, Vondrousova, known as more of a clay-court specialist.
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Winning and Woes at Wimbledon
Wimbledon 2023 is at the quarter finals stage and sadly all my faves are out. Petra Kvitova had a good run to thr 4th round but was heavily beaten 6-0, 6-3 by last years finalist, Ons Jabeur. I missed the first set – probably for the best – and while Petra put up more of a fight, Ons had the answer to all Petra’s shots and Petra just could not get the ball away for winners. The huge shock in the stats was she only had 4, yes FOUR, winners in the whole match. Petra averages 20-30 usually and it was a further sign of the fact she wasn’t in this match. While Ons played really nicely with variety and power, it was a massively disappointing performance from Petra. However, looking in the bright side, she had her best run at Wimbledon since 2019 a d rises to number 8 in the rankings.
In better news, Katerina Siniakova had a great win at the WTA250 in Bad Homburg, Germany. She made the final here 2 years ago and played some terrific tennis, especially in a rain interrupted win over hard hitting Ludmilla Samsonova.
