The US Open is an ocean away—literally and figuratively—from the All England Club, but newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova is calm, cool and collected here in Queens.
Since she lifted the trophy in SW19, the Czech has had to juggle her tennis schedule with media and sponsor obligations that go along with a Grand Slam title in 2024—something the former world No. 2 also experienced after winning the Roland Garros singles trophy in 2021. And as if that wasn’t enough with the US Open starting just six weeks later, the Paris Olympics took place right in the middle, forcing a surface change from grass back to the clay of Roland Garros before the North American hard-court swing.
However, the 28-year-old has taken it all in stride as she bids to claim a third major singles title, and has even taken some time off as needed in order to recuperate from a particularly busy summer on the other side of the Atlantic.
“I feel good. I felt like I just needed to rest a little bit after Wimbledon, after [the] Olympics. It was a very tough period with a lot of matches, a lot of changes of surfaces, a lot of obligations that came with the Wimbledon title,” she said. “I took some days off, and then I started practicing. I arrived here, and I'm continuing with the practices.
“I'm happy to be here. I'm enjoying my time. I'm practicing. I'm feeling good on the court. I feel—or I hope—I'm improving with every practice. I'm adjusting to everything that is new here.”
The hustle and bustle of New York is a far cry from the peace and quiet of Wimbledon, but Krejcikova isn’t feeling the stress. Instead, after her victory there and a run to the quarterfinals of the Olympics, she’s feeling a lot more confident compared to a few months ago, when she hadn’t strung two wins together from the end of January until mid-June.
“Right now I'm feeling relaxed. I think on Monday I'm not going to feel relaxed anymore,” she said with a smile.
“I feel much more calm than I did before because, I mean, the season wasn't going really well. I mean, I'm [a] perfectionist, so I wanted to be better. I mean, before Wimbledon I had many doubts and things just weren't going my way. Right after Wimbledon, I kind of told myself, ‘Just please never doubt yourself again,’ because there is no reason to do that.”
What Krejcikova didn’t say, however, is that she never really needed to doubt herself given the success she’s had at the sport’s highest level. While victory at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center would be her first Grand Slam singles title on hard courts, giving her a major crown on each of the three surfaces, none of this is really new to her.
As a doubles player, she has lifted the trophy at all four Slams, as well as the 2020 Olympics (played in 2021) and the 2021 WTA Finals. She owns seven major women’s doubles titles across the Australian Open (2022, 2023), Roland Garros (2018, 2021) Wimbledon (2018, 2022), and the US Open (2022), all with Katerina Siniakova. She earned three more in mixed doubles, when from 2019 to 2021, she three-peated as the Australian Open champion, winning twice with Rajeev Ram and once with Nikola Mektic.
The US Open is the lone major where Krejcikova has only (only?) one title. But with her down-to-earth personality and a viral video of her cutting up the dance floor at the Wimbledon Champions’ Ball with Carlos Alcaraz, the little girl who started hitting a tennis ball against the wall with a cutting board while her brother played with his friends is sure to gain the support of the New York crowd—perhaps the biggest asset in a player's quest for Flushing stardom.
“I like the US Open. I always did,” she said. “I like the fans. They can be wild. Sometimes it's good; sometimes it's bad. If I'm winning, it's good. If I'm losing, it's not that good.
“But I like the energy, the atmosphere that they bring. I think it's great… I think it's giving us extra energy to perform better.”
