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Barbora Krejcikova avoided the curse of the early Czech-out on Tuesday as she held off the hustle of the rising Filipino star Alexandra Eala to progress to the second round at Wimbledon.
The defending women’s champion has seen her season blitzed by injury, and was predicted by Wimbledon’s in-house supercomputers to lose here and echo her compatriot Marketa Vondruosava, who last year became the first women’s champion to exit at the first round since 1994.
After an opening set in which she was outrun and outpowered by the 20-year-old Eala, however, Krejcikova found her form and kept her cool in the heat of mid-afternoon to claim her place in the second round.
Against a shimmering backdrop of supporters beating their fans under the centre court sun it was a battle between experience and enthusiasm, with the latter landing the first blow. Eala was distraught at losing in the final at Eastbourne on Saturday and looked determined to make an impression here as she battered Krejcikova early on with a series of punishing strokes off either side. The 29-year-old 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.
A clean hold at the start of the second set gave the Czech 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 of the second set. She took the opportunity with both hands and soon swept to a 5-0 lead with both power and movement at striking odds to the action witnessed earlier.
Such are the vicissitudes of this sport and as Krejcikova rose so Eala began to drop in her levels, the left-hander no longer able to deploy her power as reliably as she had. It was Eala making the errors and Krejcikova finding her marks, and the Czech broke Eala’s opening service game in the third set to take what proved a vital lead in the match. As Eala tried and failed to fight her way back into the match, her frustration began to become more visible. Krejcikova displayed her emotions just once, meanwhile, yelling as she sealed a second break to go 5-1 up in the final set.
Having played just six matches in the year to this point, Krejcikova’s body may not be at its most highly conditioned. Her mentality, however, is drum tight.
