KREJCIKOVA Barbora

General
DOUBLES SPECIALIST
She has been known as a doubles specialist through her career, having won Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles. She made a breakthrough in her singles career at the 2021 French Open in Paris, claiming the title with a three-set victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final. Prior to this her best result in a singles tournament at a Grand Slam was reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2020. She also won the women's doubles title with Katerina Siniakova at the 2021 French Open. "I always believed that I could play singles as well. It just took me a little bit longer to get there. For me it's really tough with the confidence. I just try to be really positive, but I feel I was raised to expect things to be very hard and to not feel confident. For me it's a bit harder to change that." (olympics.com, 12 Jun 2021)

NOVOTNA INSPIRATION
She was coached and mentored by the Czech 1998 Wimbledon singles winner Jana Novotna until Novotna's death from cancer in 2017. Krejcikova paid tribute to her former coach during the on-court ceremony after winning the singles title at the 2021 French Open in Paris. "I was going through a really hard time when Jana was passing away. I was with her most of the time and I really wanted to experience this because I thought it's going to make me really strong. Pretty much her last words were, 'Just enjoy [playing] and try to win a Grand Slam'. I know that from somewhere she is looking after me. It was amazing that I had a chance to meet her and she was such an inspiration for me. I hope she's happy right now." (tennishead.net, 12 Jun 2021; tennis-prose.com, 14 May 2019)