Wimbledon champion Markéta Vondroušová, French Open finalist and US Open semi-finalist Karolína Muchová, Australian Open quarterfinalist Jiří Lehečka, plus the excellent performances of Czech tennis players in the Davis Cup… This is just a brief list of Czech successes in the coming year.
And that is far from all. It is necessary to add to the fantastic results of the Czech hopes at the under-14 team world championship, where gold medals were won by both young Czech players and, for the first time in history, tennis players as well.
“It’s been an amazing ride. The girls were a great team and complemented each other not only on the court but also off it. I’m very happy for them that they managed everything despite the fact that the matches were balanced, tense and nervous,” said captain Petra Cetkovská, who is not playing after the girls’ seventh title.
The European under-16 indoor championship also ended with complete dominance, where the triumph in both the boys’ and girls’ categories was once again exclusively enjoyed by the Czechs. However, the Czech hopes were also presented with excellent performances at the junior grand slams. Nikola Bartůňková played for the title at Wimbledon, Tereza Valentová for a change at the US Open.
“We won four and a half out of nine possible Wimbledon titles. We have European champions, European vice-champions, world champions and world champions here. We are the best in the world! How can we improve it?” said the head of Czech and European tennis, Ivo Kaderka, in an interview with the tenisovysvet.cz portal.
Photo: ITF
Brenda Fruhvirtová is one of the biggest Czech hopes
His words are clearly confirmed by looking at the charts. In the under-14 category, there are an incredible five Czech female tennis players in the top ten, while their counterparts of the same age have two Czech flags.
For girls under 16, we can find three Czech names in the TOP 10 – Laura Samsonová, Tereza Valentová, Alena Kovačková, among the boys, the second Maxim Mrva and the fourth Jan Kumstát are among the elite. Brenda Fruhvirtová, Sára Bejlek and Nikola Bartůňková are among the top ten in the ranking of players under the age of 18.
And women? Markéta Vondroušová, Karolína Muchová and Barbora Krejčíková are proud of the status of TOP Ten players. No other country in the world can boast such statistics across categories. “I’m really excited and happy about it. When you see the rising flags and watch our Czech flag go up and below it is the Canadian and French…,” adds a satisfied Kaderka.
