Czech Bourdain at her best. The Czechs won their second consecutive women’s singles title, this time with Barbora Krejčíková

CCzech women’s tennis is going through unprecedented times. The most high-profile and prestigious Grand Slam tournament in the world – Wimbledon in London – has a Czech singles champion for the second time. Last year, Markéta Vondroušová won, and this year Barbora Krejčíková also won.

The 28-year-old tennis player defeated the seventh seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini in the final with 6:2, 2:6, 6:4. After a strong performance in the first set, she became visibly uncertain in the second set, making a double fault and the Italian returned to the match. However, in the third set, Krejcikova was more calm in the decisive moments.

In the middle of the set, she broke her opponent’s serve and successfully closed the set, although the final encounter was very tense, with both sides struggling in the back-and-forth duel in the tenth game. She won on only the third match point.

Krejcikova won the final alongside Paolini in 1 hour and 56 minutes, becoming the eighth different champion of the tournament in the past eight years. She dominated Wimbledon as the 31st seed, losing just three sets in the tournament. For the win, she will receive £2.7 million (more than 81 million kroner).

“I wasn’t in good form this year, but now I’m standing here with the Wimbledon trophy. I don’t know how this happened,” Krejcikova said in her first interview on court.

For the tennis player from Ivansis, this is already the second Grand Slam title in her singles career. Even the Czech Republic has won the fifth place in the women’s competition: Petra Kvitová won in 2011 and 2014, and Krejčíková’s former coach Jana Novotná won in 1998. All nine titles won by Martina Navrátilová from 1978 to 1990 were won under the American flag. By the way, even in Krejčíková’s victories, Navrátilová was not absent from the role of spectator.

This is no accidental success. Czech women’s tennis has never been stronger in the world. Seven Czech women tennis players are in the top 50 of the WTA rankings. This is despite the fact that the powerful generation born between 1986 and 1990 has either retired forever or is becoming mothers.