Wimbledon winner’s endearingly honest speech

Barbora Krejcikova has become the champion nobody expected. Least of all herself.

Barbora Krejcikova with the Ladies' Singles Trophy following victory at Wimbledon. Picture: Getty

Barbora Krejcikova has made an endearingly honest speech after winning Wimbledon and revealed she’s spoken to her late coach in her dreams. The shy Czech beat Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the final to become the ladies’ champion nobody expected. Least of all herself.

“Hello, everybody,” Krejcikova told a packed Centre Court crowd in London. “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 said.

Later, the 28-year-old Czech bawled inside the All England Club. Her name was already on the champions’ honour board. She cast a glance down the list and saw 1998, Miss J. Novotna – the champion Czech player who Krejcikova wrote to as a teenager. Can you help me? Reckon I can be a pro? 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 told Krejcikova to go win a major or two. Krejcikova has indeed won a couple. Now she’s joined Novotna as a Wimbledon champion. As if the whole thing has 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,” the 28-year-old 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 dreamed that I would win the same trophy as Jana did.

The 31st-seeded Krejcikova started brilliantly, became tense in the second set, regathered her courage and best tennis in the nick of time. Asked about her emotions when she saw the honour board, Krejcikova said: “Well, the only thing that was going through my head was that I miss Jana a lot. 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 added: “We started working together at the beginning of 2014 until she passed away. 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 just finished juniors, and that 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.”

Krejcikova said she’d been dreaming about Novotna. “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 this year. Lost both. “It’s tough to speak because I was close but not enough,” she said. “Started bad. I think I have to realise that I did the final in Wimbledon. It’s an amazing thing. Of course, now I’m a little bit disappointed but it’s been an incredible year. I’m enjoying. I 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 okay.”