London, July 12 After making her first Wimbledon singles final, emotional Barbora Krejcikova paid tribute to her late mentor Jana Novotna, after a come-from-behind win over Elena Rybakina in the semifinal.
When Krejcikova was making the transition from juniors to pros, she and her parents visited the four-time Grand Slam singles finalist Novotnaat her home for advice, according to WTA.
"I worked with Jana Novotna (the late 1998 Wimbledon champion). She told me a lot of stories about her journey here and how she tried to win. She is definitely my inspiration. I fight for every single ball because I think that’s what she’d want me to do. I just miss her so much," said Krejcikova in her on-court interview.
"(Novotna and I) talked about [her] matches here," she added, in her post-match press conference. "It's been some while since we talked about it, so I can't really tell you what it was about. But we definitely did. Yeah, I mean, I hope she would be proud."
Not only did Novotna provide words of wisdom, but she became a hands-on coach for Krejcikova during her trip up the ranks through the ITF Challenger circuit. She was Novotna's last protegee before her death from ovarian cancer.
"After my juniors career, it was a lot about Jana [as an inspiration] because I had an opportunity to meet her and to spend time with her and see, like, how she behaves, who she is, how such a big champion she is," Krejcikova said.
A 10-time Grand Slam doubles winner, including two crowns here in 2018 and 2022, Krejcikova became the seventh Czech-born women to have reached the Wimbledon ladies' singles final after Martina Navratilova, Hana Mandlikova, Jana Novotna, Petra Kvitova, Karolina Pliskova, Marketa Vondrousova.
Should Krejcikova won in Saturday's final, she could become the second straight Czech to win the title after Marketa Vondrousova triumphed last year.
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