It would be not merely churlish but gross injustice if in her moment of triumph, aspersions are cast on Barbora Krejcikova’s future in the sport. Many more trophies, we can be sure, are destined to display her name.
‘Doesn’t matter how many titles you’re going to win, you always have to come and say hello, please and thank you,’ was one of the first things Jana Novotna told her the first time 18-year Barbora Krejcikova stepped on the court with her new coach. It was the Thursday, Krejcikova still remembers, after the weekend when she and her parents had rung the doorbell at Novotna’s house with a request to coach the young Czech talent. After all, they were neighbours, the parents figured. Brno, Novotna’s hometown, happened to be where they lived.
“I went there and I had a letter, and I met her in her garden. I told her that I was a tennis player and I just turned 18, and maybe you can watch me or help me find out what can be the next level of my tennis,” Krejcikova told The New York Times in 2018.
The legend had smiled at the unusual approach and asked the young girl to come and hit with her three days later. What Novotna did after that stunned the youngster. Impressed with her talent and dedication, Novotna told her she would not only guide Krejcikova in her career but also travel with her as her coach. The former champion had been looking for a talent to whom she could pass on her insights. That opportunity had literally come knocking at her door.
It is a time in her life Krejcikova has never forgotten. That first meeting and the lessons in tennis and life are what paved the path to the No 1 doubles ranking in the world in 2018. It is what has sustained the Czech as she has travelled the long miles to success in the sport, unwavering in her self-belief and the core values the Czech legend imbibed in her.
Seven years later, as Krejcikova lifted the Suzanne Lenglen trophy at Roland Garros last weekend, her eyes went skyward to thank her former coach for believing in her. Novotna may have lost her battle against cancer in 2017, but four years on, her spirit was alive and well in her 25-year old ward as she kissed her first singles Grand Slam trophy. If the current level of tennis she is playing and the determination writ large on her face is any indication, it won’t be the last.
No one Slam wonder this
Barely had the ceremony got over on Court Philippe Chartier, when the negative chatter on social media began. It is a fact that women’s tennis has lacked the kind of dominance at the top that the men’s game has witnessed over the past decade and a half. Once Serena Williams’ stranglehold was loosened, it was a free for all at the top. Consistency has been at a premium. The French Open has been particularly susceptible to this with the last eight editions seeing new names etched on the trophy that Krejcikova’s lips touched most recently.
But the failure of her immediate predecessors to demonstrate consistency in performance at the highest level, cannot be a good reason to write off her future at the top of the sport. Not only is that unfair, but reflects the lazy analysis that is endemic in tennis today.
Krejcikova did not suddenly show up on the singles circuit yesterday. She has played 456 matches on the tour and won 64 per cent of them. Much of the success has come over the past two years.
In sport, there is nothing quite like self-belief.
In 2018, Krejcikova became the No 1 ranked doubles player in the world. Success affects people differently. In the young Czech, it acted as an injection of confidence in her own destiny as a player. She won two Grand Slam events with Siniakova that year — the French and Wimbledon trophies.
She added a trio of mixed doubles titles at the Australian Open over the next three years. This weekend, after a gap of three years, she and Siniakova once again held up the doubles trophy at Roland Garros. At the age of 25, she has now added the singles championship on tennis’ most challenging surface to her mantelpiece.
Barbora Krejcikova is the first player to win both the women’s singles and doubles event at French Open since Mary Pierce did it in 2000. AP
For analysts who care to look deeper than the last lazy memory, there is a trend line worth tracking here.
The untimely death of Novotna in 2017 had affected Krejcikova deeply. It still does. Last week at Roland Garros, speaking about Novotna she said: “I always think about her. Every time I go on court, I step out of the court, I always think about her. I’m always wondering what she would tell me after such a run, all this winning matches and everything. I’m just really sad I cannot actually hear her and she cannot really say anything. I think she would just tell me that she’s very proud.”
But where others would have withdrawn into grief in 2017, the then 21-year old decided to emulate her mentor. She was paying tribute to the path Novotna had taken in her own career, a path that began as a doubles player. Indeed Jana Novotna’s story is one that perhaps merits retelling for the modern fan.
Jana Novotna — a career like no other
Perhaps unfairly, the most enduring image that the world holds of Jana Novotna is of her crying on the shoulders of the Duchess of Kent at Wimbledon’s iconic Centre Court after an inexplicable and heart breaking loss to Steffi Graf.
In 1993 against the top seed and defending champion, Novotna managed to take the second set 6-1, led Graf 4-1 in the third and was serving at 40-30 to go up 5-1. The Championship was in her grasp. And then it wasn’t. She committed what the WTA website refers to as the ‘most iconic double-fault in the history of tennis,’ putting the second serve three feet beyond the baseline. Novotna did not thereafter win a single game in that final.
1993 Wimbledon Women’s Final:
(1)Steffi Graf def. (8)Jana Novotna 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-4
It was Graf’s 3rd straight Wimbledon and 5th overall
This match is most famous for Novotna losing a 4-1, 40-30 final set lead that ended with her crying on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent pic.twitter.com/IKERadX8XB
— Tennis Historian (@HistorianTennis) April 12, 2021
What the photo doesn’t show is the Duchess whispering to the inconsolable Novotna: “One day you will do it — I know you will.”
Four years later Novotna made the final again. Once again she lost, this time in three sets to 16-year old prodigy, Martina Hingis. Once again the Duchess spoke to her. Novotna would later recall the conversation: “I told her I’m getting a bit old and she said to me my third time would be lucky.”
The following year, the Duchess’ words proved prescient. Brushing aside Hingis in the semis, Novotna was imperious in the final, prevailing over France’s Nathalie Tauziat in straight sets. She was finally Wimbledon champion, the oldest at that point, three months short of her thirtieth birthday.
But Novotna’s belief in herself had been reinforced 8-years before on the doubles court. In 1990 Jana Novotna became the world’s No 1 doubles player. She was 22, the exact age at which her prodigy Krejcikova would achieve the same feat 28-years later. By the time she retired, Novotna had her name inscribed on sixteen trophies around the Grand Slam circuit.
The journey is just beginning
It was entirely appropriate that the last time Krejcikova met Novotna before she died, her mentor had told her to ‘go win a Grand Slam.’ In the four years since Krejcikova won six. This weekend at Paris, she added two more.
It took Novotna seven long years to graduate from a doubles Grand Slam title holder to singles. Krejcikova has done it in three. It would be not merely churlish but gross injustice if in her moment of triumph, aspersions are cast on the young Czech’s future in the sport. Many more trophies, we can be sure, are destined to display her name.
Fasten your seat belts folks, for the Krejcikova Express is here. Paris was just the first stop on its journey to greatness.
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