Barbora Krejcikova’s tribute to Jana Novotna after Wimbledon final
Nobody has expected the 31st seed to win Wimbledon. Least of all the 31st seed. Krejcikova can beat anyone on tour but she can lose to anyone, too.
A brass band warms up the crowd with trombones, cornets, tenor horns, baritone horns, euphoniums and flugelhorns. Doesn’t miss a beat. A beautiful young woman then strides out to perform the toss. Satia Murray is from a charity called the Ashdon Jazz Academy, where they support the mental health and wellbeing of girls from minor communities in London.
It’s announced over the loudspeaker: “Satia’s own self-confidence has blossomed since she joined the academy.” She flicks the coin like a boss. Jasmine Paolini elects to serve. The Wimbledon final begins and the Italian is performing like she’s never played tennis in her life. Never seen a court. What’s this? A racquet? Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova is calm and composed. She cannot believe her luck.
Now Krejcikova is squeaking and going out of tune. Her self-confidence falls flat. Racquet’s as tinny as a flugelhorn. She gets nervous, timid, fearful, and Paolini starts marching, her own well-being blossoming. We’re a set all.
Paolini wants to lick her lips but she’s so tense her tongue is dry as sandpaper. There’s so much pressure the drone camera might explode. The elusive, all-important self-confidence goes back and forth across the net quicker than the ball before Krejcikova lands a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 triumph.
Nobody has expected the 31st seed to win Wimbledon. Least of all the 31st seed. Krejcikova can beat anyone on tour but she can lose to anyone, too. She gives an endearingly honest speech while clutching the Venus Rosewater Dish. Which she’ll have to give back soon enough. She’ll be taking a replica home to her pool room in Ivancice, a Czech town of 10,000.
“Hello, everybody,” she tells the crowd rather shyly. “It’s unreal, what just happened. It’s definitely the best day of my tennis career and also the best day of my life.
“It’s super difficult to explain what I’m feeling right now. I was just telling myself to be brave.
“I think that nobody really believes it. I think nobody really believes that I got to the final and I think nobody is really going to believe that I won Wimbledon. I still cannot believe it.”
Why?
“It’s unbelievable!” she says.
She receives a warm, swooning ovation. Then bawls inside the All England Club. Her name is already on the champions’ honour board. She casts an excited glance down the list. Sees 1998, Miss J. Novotna. Then the waterworks begin. Her face goes into her hands. Her shoulders heave.
Novotna is the Czech player who Krejcikova wrote to as a teenager. Can you help me? Reckon I can be a professional tennis player? Novotna was a generous soul. She checked the kid out. Became her coach, mate and inspiration. Before she died from ovarian cancer in 2017, Novotna has told Krejcikova to go win a major or two.
Alongside her French Open of three years ago, Krejcikova has indeed won a couple, and now she’s joined Novotna as a Wimbledon champion, the honour board says so, as if it’s all been written in the stars.
“Going to Jana, knocking on her door, giving her the letter, everything that happened during that moment – it changed my life,” Krejcikova says. “During the period when I finished juniors, I didn’t know what I should do. I didn’t know if I should continue and play pro or go the way of education.
“Jana was the one that told me that I have the potential and I should definitely turn pro and try to make it. She told me to win a slam and I achieved that already in 2021 in Paris. It was an unbelievable moment for me.
“I never really dreamt I would win the same (Wimbledon) trophy as Jana did.”
Paolini has looked the most likely victor when blossoming in the second set and early phases of the third. She’s the more dynamic player, missing no beats, forcing Krejcikova to scamper around in defence.
When Krejcikova gets tired and tense, her mouth always goes in the shape of an “o”, like she’s Betty Cuthbert at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Krejcikova is gasping in the deciding set, flugelhorns at 10 paces, but Paolini panics and becomes ruinously erratic. Krejcikova can’t believe it.
Why?
It’s unbelievable!
The stuff of dreams.
“The only thing that was going through my head was that I miss Jana a lot,” Krejcikova says while shedding tears in front of the honour board.
“It was just very, very emotional. Very emotional moment to see me on a board right next her. I think she would be proud.
“I think she would be really excited that I’m on a same board as she is because Wimbledon was super special for her,” she says with Martina Navratilova, Novotna’s great friend and Wimbledon legend, watching from the stands.
Novotna coached Krejcikova from 2014 until she left the mortal coil.
“I’m not exactly sure what I wrote in the letter right now, but I wrote something that I’m playing tennis, that I’m 18, I’ve just finished juniors and I don’t know what to do right now. So if she could, like, look at me and maybe help me, guide me, tell me which direction should I go.”
What happens when we die? There’s a decent question. Krejcikova is asked if she talks to Novotna. She replies, “I’m dreaming about her a lot. I’m dreaming about her, like, in a dream – I think it’s very personal, so I would just keep it like this. But yes, I’m dreaming about her and we are talking in the dreams.”
Paolini has played the finals at the French Open and Wimbledon and lost ’em both. “It’s tough to speak because I was close but not enough,” she says. “Started bad.
“I have to realise I did the final in Wimbledon – and it’s an amazing thing. I’m a little bit disappointed but it’s been an incredible year. I’m enjoying and hope to continue with this level of tennis. I’m going to work to keep this focus.
“I’m enjoying these kind of results that I have done but today it’s tough. I’m disappointed a little bit. But that’s OK.”
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