Tennis player Barbora Krezhikova will not defend last year’s quarter-finals at the US Open for the Grand Slam. The 26-year-old Brno native, who played the 23rd seed, lost on concrete courts at Flushing Meadows to Serbian Aleksandra Kronichova 6:2, 4:6, 2:6 and actually finished in the second round. Kruničová will challenge Russia’s Lyudmila Samsonova in the next stage.
“The match was interrupted because of missed opportunities. I was working to convert it. But if I don’t succeed, the opponent takes the important balls and wins,” Krijikova told Czech reporters after the match.
Krijikova, a two-time winner at Roland Garros last year, scored another weaker Grand Slam result after an elbow injury in February. While defending her French Open title, she was knocked out on the opening stage, and later reached the third round at Wimbledon.
The third-highest-ranked Czech in the tournament fought a well-played duel against the 96th player in the world and won the first set thanks to three breaks. However, three-year-old Kruničová stopped making mistakes later and tied the duel thanks to her 100% serve in the second set.
“She definitely had to add something and change something. Unfortunately, the match broke out there. Even in the third set, I created many chances, but I didn’t take advantage of them. We have to look at the course of the match, learn from it,” Krizhikova said.
In the decisive third set, Kruničová lost no match by a score of 2:2 and after 1 hour 52 minutes secured her first-ever advance to the third round of the US Open. Krejčík did not even help seven aces, on the contrary, she scored 38 non-compulsive fouls.
Coach agent Alice Kartos will get another chance in New York in the doubles, where she will fight with Kateřina Siniaková. “I hope we will perform well. If the singles no longer works well for me, I will give everything in the doubles so that we can stay here as long as possible,” Krijikova added.
