Emotional Krejcikova breaks 40-year dry spell to win French Open

BARBORA Krejcikova capped a dream fortnight in Paris with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory over No.31 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday to become the first Czech woman to win the Roland-Garros singles title since Hana Mandlikova in 1981.

The world No.33, who could sweep both singles and doubles titles in Paris should she triumph alongside her partner Katerina Siniakova in the doubles final on Sunday, needed one hour and 58 minutes to overcome her Russian opponent and lift her maiden singles major trophy.

A champion in Strasbourg on the eve of Roland-Garros, Krejcikova extended her current winning streak to 12 consecutive matches.

She was ranked 114 in singles when she made her first run to a Grand Slam fourth round in Paris eight months ago and is now the Roland-Garros champion — a remarkable rise for the former doubles No.1.
Krejcikova paid tribute to her late coach Jana Novotna, who passed away after a battle with cancer at the age of 49 in November 2017.

“I cannot believe what just happened, I cannot believe that I actually won a Grand Slam,” an emotional Krejcikova said on court.

“I was going through a really hard time when Jana was passing away, I was most of the time her, and I really wanted to experience this because I thought it’s just going to make me really strong. Pretty much her last words were, ‘Just enjoy and just try to win a Grand Slam. I know that from somewhere she’s looking out for me and all of this, what happened these two weeks is because she is just looking after me probably and I just want to really thank her.

“It’s amazing that I had a chance to meet her and that she was such an inspiration for me. I just really miss her but I hope she’s happy right now and I’m extremely happy.”

rolandgarros.com.