Barbora Krejčíková

Barbora Krejčíková (Czech pronunciation: [ˈbarbora ˈkrɛjtʃiːkovaː]; born 18 December 1995) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles by the WTA. Krejčíková has won eight singles, 20 doubles, and three mixed doubles titles at the WTA Tour level. She is known for her aggressive playing style and her smooth, powerful groundstrokes.

Krejčíková has won two singles majors (at the 2021 French Open and at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships) and seven women's doubles majors, including the career Golden Slam in women's doubles. Krejčíková won all seven of her women's doubles majors partnering with compatriot Kateřina Siniaková. She also won three mixed doubles majors, all at the Australian Open, for a combined total of 12 major titles. She is one of only two active players to have won a major in all three disciplines, alongside Venus Williams.

Alongside her major titles, Krejčíková won the 2021 WTA Finals and a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in women's doubles, both partnering Siniaková, and was part of the Czech team that won the 2018 Fed Cup. The pairing also finished runners-up at two WTA Finals and the 2021 Australian Open.

Early life

Krejčíková started playing tennis aged six. She later was coached and mentored by Jana Novotná. She played for TK Ivančice.

Career highlights

Singles

In October 2020, Krejčíková reached the fourth round of the French Open tournament, which helped her attain a new best year-end ranking of No. 65 in November.

In March 2021, Krejčíková made progress to her first singles final of a WTA 1000 tournament at the Dubai Championships, eventually losing to Garbiñe Muguruza. As a result, she climbed to a new career-high of No. 38 in the singles rankings.

In May 2021, Krejčíková won her first WTA singles title at Strasbourg the day before the 2021 French Open started. Krejčíková went on to win the subsequent French Open, her first Grand Slam title in singles. As a result, she climbed to a career-high of No. 15 in the singles rankings. She won her third WTA singles title at Prague, and reached a career high singles ranking of world No. 2 in February 2022 after reaching the final at Sydney and the quarterfinals of the 2022 Australian Open. After injuries, Krejčíková would win two further singles titles in 2022: at Tallinn, and at Ostrava.

In 2023, Krejčíková won her maiden WTA 1000 title in singles at the 2023 Dubai Tennis Championships, defeating four top-10 opponents, including the world Nos 1, 2, and 3.

In 2024, Krejčíková reached her second Grand Slam final at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, defeating former champion Elena Rybakina. She won the title defeating Jasmine Paolini in three sets. It was her second singles Major title after the French Open in 2021.

Doubles

With compatriot Kateřina Siniaková, Krejčíková won the doubles titles at the 2018 French Open and 2018 Wimbledon Championships. Krejcikova also won the 2021 French Open women's doubles title with Siniaková, and they added the Australian Open Women's doubles 2022 title in January 2022. The pair added the 2022 Wimbledon Championships title and completed the career grand slam with the doubles title in New York at the US Open.

Krejcikova has won three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, winning the Australian Open for three years in a row from 2019 to 2021. With American partner Rajeev Ram, she won the mixed-doubles competition of the 2019 Australian Open. She succeeded in defending her title the following year alongside Nikola Mektić, and in 2021 again, with Rajeev Ram.

Additionally, Krejčíková has won six more doubles titles on the WTA Tour, one WTA 125K series doubles title, as well as 19 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

On 22 October 2018, Krejčíková reached No. 1 in the doubles rankings, jointly with Kateřina Siniaková. They were the fifth and sixth Czechs ranked No. 1 since 1975, and the 14th pair that attained the No. 1 together.

In August 2021, Krejcikova and Siniaková won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the women's doubles.

In November 2021, Krejčíková won the 2021 WTA Finals doubles title with Siniaková, their first title at the year-end championships.

Career

2013: Juniors

Krejčíková was ranked junior world No. 3 in October 2013. In that year, she won the girls' doubles titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open with fellow Czech Kateřina Siniaková. Alongside Oleksandra Korashvili from Ukraine, she also reached the final of the Australian Open, falling one match shy of completing the calendar-year Grand Slam. The same year, she also won the European Junior Championship U18 in Klosters, Switzerland in singles and doubles.

2014–15: WTA Tour debut, WTA doubles title

Krejčíková made her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 Gastein Ladies, where she and partner Kateřina Siniaková lost in the first round. In singles, her debut was at the Tournoi de Québec, where she qualified for the main draw and reached the second round, losing to Lucie Hradecká. In doubles there, she reached the semifinals. At the Luxembourg Open, she reached her first WTA Tour doubles final pairing Hradecká. However, they were defeated by Timea Bacsinszky and Kristina Barrois. In 2015, Krejčíková only played one WTA Tour main-draw singles event, at the Tournoi de Québec, where she was defeated in the first round. At all four Grand Slam championships, she failed to qualify for the main draw, losing in the first or second rounds of them all.

In doubles, she had more success, reaching the semifinals at the Diamond Games, debuting in the main draw of the French Open, and winning her first title at the Tournoi de Québec. In November, she won her first WTA 125K title at the Open de Limoges, partnering Mandy Minella.

2016: French Open semifinal, doubles top 30

In singles, Krejčíková mainly played on the ITF Circuit. However, she took part in a few WTA tournaments but lost in qualifying or in early rounds of the main draw. She lost in the first round of qualifying at the Qatar Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon.

Krejčíková started the year well in doubles, reaching the semifinals at the Auckland Open. Next, she played for the first time at the Australian Open, reaching the second round. In February, she played her first Premier final in doubles at the St. Petersburg Trophy. At the Qatar Open, she made her first appearance at a Premier 5/Premier Mandatory tournament, where she lost in the second round. Her breakthrough came at the French Open, where she, with her doubles partner Siniaková, reached the semifinals, losing to Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova. This result ranked her in the top 50 for the first time, at No. 34. At Wimbledon, she lost in the first round. At the US Open, she reached her second Grand Slam quarterfinal alongside Siniaková, but lost there to Martina Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe. She entered the top 30 in rankings for the first time in her career.

2017: First WTA singles final

In the first few months, Krejčíková had success in singles on the ITF Circuit, but didn't do well on the WTA Tour. She failed in qualification at Taiwan Open and Morocco Open, and failed to reach the main-draw of Australian Open again, losing in the second round of qualification. Then suddenly, in late May, she reached her first WTA singles final at the Nurember Cup, where she played from the qualifying rounds. She lost the final to top seed Kiki Bertens. This result brought her back to the top 150, for the first time since September 2015. In the grass-court season, she only played in qualifying for Wimbledon, but missed the chance to play in the main-draw. In Båstad, she played in the quarterfinal, where she lost to Caroline Garcia. For the first time, she had the chance to play in the main draw of the Rogers Cup, but lost in the second round of qualification. At US Open, she also didn't have success, losing in the first round of qualification.

Also in doubles, the first few months were not really successful for Krejčíková, reaching only the second round at the Australian Open, and first round of Sydney International, Taiwan Open and Hungarian Open. During the clay-court season, things get better. At Morocco Open, she reached her first semifinal in 2017. At Madrid Open, she lost in the first round, but at the Italian Open she reached her first Premier 5/Premier Mandatory quarterfinal. At the French Open, partnering with Chan Hao-ching, lost to Lucie Hradecká-Kateřina Siniaková in the third round. In the grass season, she only played at Wimbledon, where she lost in the first round. At Swedish Open, she reached the doubles final, but missed the chance to win the title. At Rogers Cup, she lost in the second round of the doubles, while at the US Open, she reached the third round in doubles. In October, she played the semifinal doubles at the Kremlin Cup.