In January this year, Barbora Krejcikova (13th WTA) achieved the second greatest success in her career. After triumphing at Roland Garros in 2021, she has now won another Grand Slam tournament – Wimbledon. In the final, the Czech defeated Italian Jasmine Paolini (6th WTA) 6:2, 2:6, 6:4.
Barbora Krejcikova scratched in Ningbo. What about the WTA Finals?
Right after Wimbledon, Krejcikova played in the Olympic Games in Paris, where she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Slovak Anna Schmiedlova (108th WTA) 4:6, 2:6. Since then, the 28-year-old Czech has been completely lost. In the US Open, she was eliminated in the second round, sensationally losing to Romanian Elena Ruse (96th WTA) 4:6, 5:7. Then she lost in the first matches of tournaments in Beijing and Wuhan and complained about health problems.
This week, Krejcikova took part in the WTA 500 tournament in the Chinese city of Ningbo. In the first match, the Czech defeated the Chinese Yexin Ma (WTA 261) 7:6, 6:3 after a two-hour match. In the quarterfinals, the Wimbledon champion faced the great hope of Russian tennis, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva (19th WTA). The first set was very tight and was decided in a tie-break. In it, from a score of 5:4 to the Czech, the Russian won three actions in a row.
In the second match, with the score 3-2 for Andreeva, the fans were very disappointed. That's when Krejcikova decided to forfeit the match. She first asked for medical help and then decided not to continue playing.
This is very bad news for the Czech tennis player. Soon, on November 2-9, the WTA Finals tournament will be played in Saudi Arabia, with the participation of the eight best tennis players of this season.
In addition to Krejcikova, the following players will play there: Iga Świątek (1st WTA), Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2nd WTA), Americans Coco Gauff (3rd WTA) and Jessica Pegula (4th WTA), Kazaszka Jelena Rybakina (5th WTA), Italian Jasmine Paolini (6th WTA) and China's Qinwe Zheng (7th WTA).