Young Czech women on their way to world domination of tennis?
The future of tennis looks more than bright for the Czech Republic, especially for women. A quick look into the crystal ball.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Aug 22, 2021, 10:30 am
Jan Kodes, Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl or Jana Novotna - these are just a few examples from the glorious Czech tennis past. Meanwhile, the republic with almost eleven million inhabitants no longer has to fear the migration of its greatest talents across the pond to North America - thanks to the end of the communist regime in 1989. But even at the moment, the West Slavic country cannot complain when it comes to top athletes in tennis. With Karolina Pliskova, Barbora Krejcikova, Petra Kvitova and Karolina Muchova there are currently four players from the Czech Republic among the top 23 positions in the world rankings. A value that no other nation has to offer, not even the American women who are spoiled for success.
A look into the future may give rise to even more hopes for the Czech sports nation, which is used to success. Because if you look at the numbers in the international U-18 ranking of tennis women, they are even more impressive than for the "adult" players. With Linda Frühvirtova (rank 4/16 years), Sara Bejlek (6/15), Linda Noskova (10/17), Lucie Havlickova (16/17) and Nikola Bartkova (18/15) there are five juniors from the Czech Republic Top 20. Second best nation in this ranking is the USA with four athletes. While Frühvirtova, whose younger sister Brenda also works as a tennis player, is already 378th in the WTA ranking, Noskova is also the current French Open title holder in the junior competition.
Sara Bejlek - 557 seats in one go
Sara Bejlek, named second in the above list, deserves special attention in this regard. The only 15-year-old surprisingly won her home tournament in Olomouc a week ago. The ITF clay court event, endowed with at least 60,000 US dollars, was consistently well attended. After all, the South Moravian defeated players with positions 356, 280, 253, 178 and 213 on the way to triumph, while she was still in position 1004 before the tournament started. During the entire tournament, the teenager only had to submit one sentence. In the final she made the former world number 58. Paula Ormaechea from Argentina even scored 6-0 twice.
The Czech sports promoter Miroslav Cernosek found the following words on the Sport.cz platform: “I've been doing tennis marketing for thirty years, and I can't remember any player having risen 557 places after a tournament. Before Olomouc she was not in the top thousand, at the moment she is 439. For what she is only 15 years old, Sara is psychologically very mature. There is something about it, which, for example, also characterizes Barbora Krejcikova. She can overcome problematic situations in a match without much fuss, so that she is mentally almost constantly above the level of the opponent. "
The only 157cm tall lady, who lives very close to the Austrian border, also visited Wolfgang Thiem's training center in Traiskirchen in mid-August - she's not too far there. In addition to a meet-and-greet with the currently injured world number 6. there was also a training session on the program.