PARIS, 29 May (AFP): As Krejcikova is set to return to action, this much was clear in her mind: She does not want to dwell on what happened in Paris either of the past two years.<\/p>\n
Two years ago at the French Open, Barbora Krejcikova arrived relatively unknown and relatively unaccomplished \u2014 and left with championships in both singles and doubles, something no woman had done at Roland Garros in more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
A year ago at the French Open, Krejcikova came in after three months off because of an elbow injury and her title defense in singles ended with a first-round loss, only the third ever by the previous year\u2019s champion in more than a half-century of the Open era.<\/p>\n
And then her title defense in doubles ended before that event began thanks to a positive test for COVID-19, which hit her so hard she didn\u2019t get out of bed for four days.<\/p>\n
As Krejcikova prepared to return to action in Paris on Tuesday, facing Lesia Tsurenko at Court 7, this much was clear in her mind: She does not want to dwell on what happened in Paris either of the past two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all happened, but I\u2019m definitely not thinking about it anymore,\u201d Krejcikova said in an interview with The Associated Press. \u201cWhat happened last year, happened last year. What happened two years ago, happened two years ago. Now I\u2019m living in the present and I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
That she would want to forget her 2022 trip to Paris, pretend it never happened, both because of the quick defeat and because of the illness? That makes sense. That\u2019s absolutely relatable.<\/p>\n
That she would harbor a similar sentiment about 2021, when she produced the most triumphant two weeks of her professional life? Hmmm.<\/p>\n
When that question was put to the 27-year-old from the Czech Republic, she reconsidered. OK, there are some good vibes that come back and she is willing to enjoy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely every time I come here, and every time I step into this stadium, I always smile, because I feel really good here,\u201d she said with a grin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened two years ago? I just never actually thought this could happen. As a little kid, you have this dream: You see players playing the big tournaments and they\u2019re winning them, and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018Maybe one day? Or maybe not? Should I go to school? Should I not?\u2019 And then it actually came true. Out of nowhere. Unexpected,\u201d Krejcikova said. \u201cIt\u2019s very nice that I can say that I\u2019m a Grand Slam champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
She rose as high as No. 2 in the WTA rankings and is currently 13th. While the names on everyone\u2019s lips as the elite of women\u2019s tennis this season are Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, Krejcikova considers herself someone not to be forgotten.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel,\u201d she said, \u201cthat I\u2019m part of the players that are really close to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krejcikova proved that at a hard-court tournament in Dubai in February, when she took the title by beating the top three women in the rankings — No. 1 Swiatek, No. 2 Sabalenka and No. 3 Jessica Pegula — along with another Top 10 opponent, Daria Kasatkina, and another Grand Slam champion, two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova.<\/p>\n
That provided a boost of confidence.<\/p>\n
But only briefly.<\/p>\n
And the way she described that week-in, week-out tour life offers some insight into why she might be a tad conflicted about focusing too much on what happened in 2021 and 2022 at the French Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next week, you play another tournament, and the week in Dubai is already in the past. It\u2019s not like you have a lot of time to actually celebrate it and actually enjoy it and feel good about it, because the next week you can lose,\u201d Krejcikova said with a sigh. \u201cThen you feel more bitter than sweet, because it just goes on every single week. You don\u2019t have time to process what happened. It just goes on and on. We\u2019re like robots \u2014 next one and next one and next one. It\u2019s a constant battle of positive and negative emotions.\u201d (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 29 May (AFP): As Krejcikova is set to return to action, this much was clear in her mind: She does not want to dwell on what happened in Paris either of the past two years. Two years ago at the French Open, Barbora Krejcikova arrived relatively unknown and relatively unaccomplished \u2014 and left with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-217255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}