By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday March 15, 2020
Barbora Krejcikova's stunning rise as a singles player has taken her to a career-high ranking of 38 this week.
Photo Source: Getty
When the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, Barbora Krejcikova was well outside of the Top 100 with low expectations of ever becoming a top singles player.
What a difference a year makes.
After a flurry of positive results, and the confidence that comes with, the Czech makes her well-deserved Top 50 debut this week in the WTA rankings, at No.38. The 25-year-old Czech has already held the No.1 ranking in doubles (she's currently No.7), and she is a two-time major doubles champion as well as a three-time mixed doubles champ.
But in the last two seasons, Krejcikova has started to soar on the singles court. After a career-best Grand Slam result at Roland-Garros last October, she made her Top 100 debut.
Credit to Krejcikova, who made the most of her time off the circuit due to the Coronavirus pandemic and returned to the tour prepared to play the best singles of her life.
“I've been playing for so long,” she said last year in Paris. “I've been trying to break to the top 100 for so long. Every time I was really close, I couldn't really make it. So this time we got the stop, we got the break. I think I was 116 or something. Then I was like, Okay, now is the time to break it. I was a little nervous about it because I really wanted to make it.”
It has been smooth sailing for Krejcikova ever since. Just five months after that milestone, she has climbed inside the Top 40 thanks to her run to the final in Dubai.
Krejcikova jumps from 63 to 38 in this week’s rankings, she’s the biggest riser inside the WTA's Top 100.
Krejcikova says that the most important part of her break was being able to play a lot of local events with other Czech talents. She says that the situation in the Czech Republic was not as bad in terms of restrictions, so Czech players were able to practice together and play small competitions as well.
"I think that the Covid break that I had last year really helped me because I was able to spend much more time at home, I was able to do much more fitness,” Krecjikova told Tennis Now last week while in Dubai. “Even just like with practicing, I got more days to spend with my coach, because normally he is not really able to travel with me, because he has other kids, in my city to work with, so I think it just really helped me…
“Also I played so many tournaments in the Czech Republic because the situation was quite good we had many charity matches and team matches, I was playing with so many good players, I was practicing with good players, like Petra Kvitova, I was playing with Barbora Strycova, so I've been playing a lot of good matches and I just think that also there I gained a lot of confidence from playing with those girls, seeing them practicing, seeing what they're doing, and I'm thinking everything really helped me."
Gauff, Pegula hit career highs
Two Americans kept up their steady rise last week as Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff strengthened their spots inside the Top 40. Pegula jumped from 36 to 33, while Gauff rose to 35 from 40.
Sara Sorribes Tormo jumps 14 spots to a career-high of 57 as a result of winning the Guadalajara title, while Anastasia Potapova also clicks up 14, to 74, ten shy of her career best.
Jil Teichmann rises to No.41, thanks to her semifinal in Dubai, and Garbiñe Muguruza climbs up to 13 thanks to her 8th career title, also in Dubai.