Barbora Krejcikova was given her moment stepping out on to Centre Court as reigning women’s champion at Wimbledon and went on to seize another in the “temple of tennis” after holding off the hustle of the rising Filipina star Alexandra Eala to progress to the second round.
Opening play on Tuesday was, the 29-year-old said, “something very beautiful” and, ultimately, her tennis hit the standard too. With her season so far blitzed by injury, Krejcikova was predicted by Wimbledon’s in-house supercomputer to lose here, and echo her compatriot Marketa Vondrousova who last year became the first women’s champion to exit at the first round since 1994. In the end, an early Czech out was comfortably avoided.
“It’s great to be back,” Krejcikova said. “It’s just great to be playing in the temple of tennis. It’s a very special place here and I think I was feeling more of the happier emotions today than I did last year.”
The 20-year-old Eala, who was ranked world No 140 when she reached the semi-finals of the Miami Open in March, did no damage to her growing reputation. After reaching the final of Eastbourne last weekend, and ending the match distraught at defeat, she set about grabbing this match by the horns and put Krejcikova under severe pressure in a dominant first set.
Against a shimmering backdrop, with spectators assiduously beating their fans under the sun, Eala, now the world No 56, launched a bombardment of attacks against the No 17 seed, unleashing punishing strokes off either side. The champion, who pulled out of Eastbourne with a thigh complaint, seemed to lack both the agility and the power to keep up and dropped consecutive service games on the way to losing the first set 6-3.
But then came a turn. Krejcikova said she had been caught out by Eala’s early approach – “I didn’t expect what she was playing” – but she used the start of the second set to turn the match to her advantage. A clean hold gave her a chance to catch her breath and a lucky forehand winner at 0-15 gave her a platform to build a break in the second game. She took the opportunity with both hands and soon swept to a 5-0 lead.
“I found a way,” Krejcikova said. “To be honest, I just went point by point, one after another, and tried to put them together. I think that was really the key point, to try to gain some lead in that second set.” Such are the vicissitudes of this sport, that as Krejcikova rose so Eala’s level began to drop, the left-hander no longer able to deploy her power as reliably as she had. It was her making the errors, and Krejcikova hitting her marks; and the 29-year-old broke Eala’s opening service game in the third set to take what proved the vital lead. As Eala tried and failed to fight her way back frustration became more visible. The champion, meanwhile, displayed her emotions just once; yelling after sealing a second break to go 5-1 up in the final set. She duly held serve to close out the match.
“At the end of the day she’s where she’s at for a reason,” said Eala, reflecting on the match. “It’s because of certain aspects of her game that she does very well. There are certain aspects of my game that I need to improve. So obviously with time after calming down and after all the emotions, I think we’ll take a look back at it, and we’ll identify those things. Then I can focus on moving forward.”
Krejcikova will face Caroline Dolehide of the US next. This was only the champion’s seventh match of the season following a lengthy back injury, but she says she is a different player mentally to the one who came to SW19 last year.
“The result I achieved last year is definitely helping,” she said. “I feel good. Today was a day where I was really mentally there. I was fighting for every single ball, the match turned around and at the end I was the one lifting up the arms.”
