LONDON – Barbora Krejcikova wondered last year why she wasn’t getting the attention a Grand Slam champion deserves: “What else do I have to do?”
Perhaps, win Wimbledon.
The Czech tennis player, the 2021 Roland Garros champion, added the title in London to her trophy collection. “It’s the best day of my career, the best day of my life,” she said with the women’s singles trophy in her arms, the Venus Rosewater Dish. She defeated Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. The Italian was the clear crowd favorite.
“I feel like I deserve recognition from the media and I’m not getting it. On social media they talk about Iga (Swiatek), Aryna (Sabalenka) and Elena (Rybakina). I’m not really there. I’ve been very successful on the tour and I’m not being recognized,” she claimed in an interview with the WTA website.
Fifteen months later she was proclaimed singles champion at the All England Club and thus put her name on the walls of the venue one more time: the Czech had been champion in doubles (2018, 2022) and junior doubles (2013).
Wimbledon chairwoman Debbie Jevans points Barbora Krejcikova to the name of her late mentor Jana Novotna on the Wimbledon wall of champions.
Barbora Krejcikova breaks down in tears.
Beautiful 🤍 pic.twitter.com/1ZrdoeLZXk
— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) July 13, 2024
Singles is different. There she matched her mentor and compatriot, 1998 champion Jana Novotna, who has been mentioned in her recent interviews, and for whom she has been moved to tears. The Czech, a former world number two (just like Krejcikova) passed away in 2017 from cancer.
When she was 18 years old, Krejcikova didn’t know whether to stay in tennis, or focus on her studies. It was Novotna who rescued her from the sea of doubt she was navigating after Krejcikova brought her a letter, “Jana changed my life.”
“When I was a junior I didn’t know what I could do, whether I had to go pro or study, and Jana was the one who told me I had potential and I had to try. I never thought I would also win the trophy she won,” she said at the awards ceremony in London.
Before she passed away, Novotna told her to go win Slams. Seven years later she already has two in singles, but her amazing career in doubles should not be overlooked. Krejcikova has achieved everything together with Katerina Siniakova: two-time champion in Australia and at Roland Garros, the titles at Wimbledon and a US Open. She won also the Olympic gold at Tokyo 2021 and the WTA Finals.
“She would be proud,” expressed the Wimbledon 2024 champion.
