The paradoxes of the Wimbledon semifinalist. Maky wanted to skip the grass season, says Hřebec

Markéta was eliminated in the first rounds at Wimbledon. Where did the transformation come from?

That’s true, but she hasn’t been there that many times either. It didn’t even happen for one year (due to covid). Again, she didn’t play it so stupidly, but she suggested to herself that she couldn’t do it and she didn’t even have anything to lean on. Even though (in 2017) they made it to the quarterfinals of the doubles with the American Bellis. But Maky always told us to leave the grass alone. She even wanted to skip the grass season and fly all the way to America for concrete. But they agreed with coach Honza Hernych that they would go and prepare well for it. You can’t train on grass for three days and then roll like a machine. You have to get used to low rebounds and stuff.

Her performances already looked solid in Berlin.

Exactly. Now she knows that grass can be her favorite surface, and it will be for the rest of her life. I’ve always said that this surface is for skilled players, and she is. You saw how he can volley. He has it in him.

Did you feel good on the grass as a player? In 1972 you were in the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

But we played it for our tennis association, now it is experienced completely differently. But I had such a volley a little over the corner, it was written on the grass. At that time, about three or four players soaped it up from the back line, the rest played service-volleys. The complete opposite of today. We had the disadvantage that we could not prepare on grass before Wimbledon. One practice and you’re off to play. But at the Davis Cup in Australia, for example, I beat Newcombe on grass, I played five-seater with Laver. It worked for me.

Coming back to Markéta, did you believe at 1:4, when she faced a break point in the duel with the world number four, that she could turn it around?

After that first set, up to 1:3 in the third, before the roof was pulled, Maky didn’t play much. A kind of lethargy settled over her. I don’t know what must have happened there to make her switch like that, but (I. ČLTK manager) Vláďa Šavrda told me that she played fantastically at the end. For me, the best match was Markéta against Kuděrmetová, where she killed it and soaped her up. And then she played brilliantly from 3:3 in the third set with Bouzková. Maybe one balloon was ruined.

But he actually plays well all season, doesn’t he?

Clearly. At the same time, I can’t really read anything about her, even though after the injury she started as 124th and now she will be at least 23rd. This is similar to Kája Muchová. She beat great players, and she has tournaments ahead of her that she didn’t play last year, so she can only win. He just froze the match of the third round of the Australian Open with Linda Fruhvirtova when she had cramps and it didn’t work out. If she didn’t play doubles, she would probably advance and go to Vekicová. But that’s how it goes in tennis.

The important thing is that she is mostly healthy, that was a big problem in the past years.

He has not had any problems for the last two or three months. Her wrist does not hurt, nor her groin. I was just thinking before the singles quarterfinals that she shouldn’t continue in doubles anymore and better rest. But they had agreed with Miri (Kolodziejová) beforehand. The singles semifinals are already something.

After some time, Markéta is preparing again with Jan Hernych, who led her to the Roland Garros final in 2019. How do you look at it?

I was the initiator of it. I told her if she wouldn’t object. She still takes it as the first year with Herňa was her best ever. But then he and his partner were expecting a fourth child, and Maky was a little broken by that. She told herself that he definitely wouldn’t want to ride with her that much anymore. Now we were talking about maybe putting him in a contract that he can’t have another child (laughs).

How do you think the semifinals against Svitolina can look like?

I saw her match with Šwiatek, where she played the ending amazingly. I also like Svitolina very much, but now the sympathy goes aside. It’s good that Markéta won’t be scared and will go to win. She beat her in the last two matches in Rome and at the Olympics, she knows her well. Svitolina will definitely fly into it aggressively. The problem would be if Maky was too defensive.

2023-07-12 19:15:35
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