Barbora Krejcikova wins the French Open: Tournament Analysis
A couple of analyses covering Barbora Krejcikova's semifinal win over Maria Sakkari and her final victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Expect the unexpected at Roland Garros.
For the sixth consecutive year, a first-time singles Grand Slam champion is crowned at the French Open. The world #33, Barbora Krejcikova, joins Iga Swiatek and Jelena Ostapenko as only the third unseeded player to lift the Suzanne-Lenglen cup.
…
I should probably introduce you.
Meet Barbora Krejcikova, winner of six Grand Slams doubles titles - three women’s doubles at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2018 and at this year’s French Open and the last three editions of the Australian Open mixed doubles. She was also the #1 ranked doubles player in 2018.
The 25-year old Czech has only played in five major singles main draws in her career, yet she played this past fortnight with all the guile and finesse of an experienced champion.
I’ve analysed her final two matches to help you get to know this year’s champion a little better.
Krejcikova’s close semifinal win over Maria Sakkari.
Krejcikova’s final victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
… Sorry, I almost forgot! Barbora, meet [insert captivated reader name].
… You don’t care?
Fair enough.
French Open Semifinal: Barbora Krejcikova defeats Maria Sakkari 7-5 4-6 9-7
Maria Sakkari had defeated Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, she was the highest seed left in the draw and had the most latent power in her game of any of her remaining competition.
The stars had aligned for Sakkari to continue her dream run - yet somehow, Krejcikova overcame her inspired opponent, breaking millions of Greek hearts in the process.
Here’s how the dramatic match unfolded.
Set 1 Krejcikova 7-5: Trusting in the slider
Normally, Krejcikova uses her backhand to work her way into the point, her mid-rally forehand usually being the weaker of the two wings.
Unfortunately, Krejcikova had left her backhand at the hotel.
During their first set, Krejcikova hit one winner or forced error on this side to 10 unforced errors. She was able to lean on the forehand but it gave Sakkari a slight advantage from the baseline:
Krejcikova groundstroke winners/forced errors to unforced errors: 9 - 14 = -5.
Sakkari groundstroke winners/forced errors to unforced errors: 10 - 14 = -4.
Krejcikova desperately turned to her serve for the remedy.
Undoubtedly, Sakkari hits a bigger serve than Krejcikova.
Krejcikova / Sakkari tournament average first serve speed: 97mph / 102mph
Krejcikova / Sakkari tournament average second serve speed: 81mph / 88mph
Sakkari had been able to use her serve more effectively than Krejcikova coming into the match. From the second round onwards1, she’d won 41.2% of her service points in the 0-4 shots range, the rally length that is most affected by the impact of the serve. Krejcikova had only won 31.1% on her service points in this range.
The disparity in the pair’s serve speeds in the first set was even larger than their tournament average.
Krejcikova / Sakkari average first serve speed: 94mph / 103mph
Krejcikova / Sakkari average second serve speed: 78mph / 86mph
Despite Sakkari serving faster and Krejcikova serving slower than her tournament average, the players flipped their respective successes in the 0-4 shot range in the first set, Krejcikova winning 44.7% and Sakkari winning 30.6%.
The takeaway?
Speed isn’t everything! Sakkari uses a flat bomb of a serve to hit past her opponents. Her serve is therefore more effective directed down the T as she can hit a faster serve.
Unfortunately for Sakkari, though Krejcikova doesn’t have the weaponry to attack the return on her backhand consistently, she is a master of neutralising pacey serves - without the ability to pull her off of the court with her serve, Sakkari was left scrambling to stay up in the rally.
Meanwhile, though it is slower, Krejcikova’s slider2 was causing havoc for Sakkari.
It didn’t matter if it was a first or a second serve, she could execute this killer serve at any time - four out of four of her second serves directed out wide in the deuce court went unreturned.
In a set where both players struggled to hold serve, Krejcikova managed to carve out a slight advantage by serving better, not bigger, than her fiery opponent.
Set 2 Sakkari 6-4: Change in serve tactics and playing more forehands
Sakkari had originally split her service direction down the middle to try and outfox her opponent, looking for cheap points on serve.
In the second set, she almost took Krejcikova’s forehand return completely out of the equation, serving exclusively to her backhand - in the deuce court, she didn’t hit a single serve out wide and, in the ad court, she only hit three serves down the T.
Sakkari also played far more forehands than she did in the first set to dictate play rather than trying to force the issue with her serve.
First set:
Krejcikova FH to BH % played: 39.1%, 60.9%
Sakkari FH to BH % played: 50.5%, 49.5%
Second set:
Krejcikova FH to BH % played: 38.0%, 62.0%
Sakkari FH to BH % played: 56.8%, 43.2%
Whilst Krejcikova essentially played as many forehands as she did in the first set, Sakkari played 6.3% more forehands, running around her backhand when she could.
Though Krejcikova found more rhythm on her backhand than she’d had in the first, Sakkari bulldozed the Czech with forehands aplenty. It was enough to give her a 4-0 lead.
The risky tactic wavered in its success to give Krejcikova three games on the bounce.
Krejcikova’s backhand finally showed up, keeping things tetchy on Sakkari’s final service game.
The lead Sakkari had given herself was too much, however, as she closed the set 6-4.
Set 3 Krejcikova 9-7: Fly me to the moon
Sakkari used her momentum and the same tactics from the previous set, whilst Krejcikova was a little flat, hitting three consecutive unforced errors to hand over the break (her most consecutive unforced errors for the entirety of the match). It was enough for Sakkari to craft a 5-3 lead for herself.
Krejcikova didn’t panic.
This is where Krejcikova’s doubles experience came to the fore. She’d already been there in huge matches, having to stay calm on the biggest points. She had the hands and instincts of a #1 doubles player.
Krejcikova then had to stay level-headed through four match point saves from Sakkari, including one that the umpire skeptically called in that could well have been out.
As Sakkari scraped and screamed to stay in the match, Krejcikova quietly got on with the task at hand, playing every shot with measured confidence, just as she had against Coco Gauff3.
In a cruel twist for fans of Maria Sakkari, Barbora Krejcikova survived a thriller against the Greek, thanks to possessing the poise and experience of a multiple Grand Slam champion.
French Open Final: Barbora Krejcikova defeats Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 2-6 6-4
Two singles Grand Slam final debutants.
Barbora Krejcikova was competing in her fifth singles Slam main draw appearance, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was competing in her 52nd.
Pavlyuchenkova had never been beyond the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam, however, and Krejcikova… well, you know what she’s done by now.
Which player had the most experience?
Set 1 Krejcikova 6-1: Pavlyuchenkova caught cold
The answer to that question immediately looked unsurprising.
A timid rally from Krejcikova that ended in a Pavlyuchenkova winner, followed by a loose backhand and two double faults suggested Krejcikova was vulnerable to nerves after all.
Once more, however, the doubles vet showed that any experience on the big stage trumps playing many singles matches without having been in a high stakes match.
Armed with the trusty slider to win the odd free point4, Krejcikova drip fed her way into the vast majority of Pavlyuchenkova’s service points, trusting in her consistency by using a couple of her usual weapons.
The backhand cross court was just powerful enough to keep Pavlyuchenkova off-balance and allow Krejcikova to work her way into each point.
Pavlyuchenkova gave Krejcikova many looks at a forehand return which she used to make the first move in the rally.
These tools allowed Krejcikova to build patterns of play to get on the front foot in the rally, giving her the ability to completely dominate the 5-8 shots rally length 12 points to 4.
Pavlyuchenkova would end the set winning only 25% of her first serve points. Though Krejcikova was playing well, Pavlyuchenkova was looking flummoxed on serve and hadn’t yet found her game from the baseline.
Krejcikova took advantage and won six games in a row.
Set 2 Pavlyuchenkova 6-2: Taking a page out Sakkari’s book
We’ve been over Pavlyuchenkova’s game before.
Her greatest asset is potentially her return but she had struggled to find her range on that shot in the first set.
On her first return point of the second set, Pavlyuchenkova sent a statement of intent as another slider was delivered out wide.
By returning closer to the baseline (sometimes within the baseline) and relying on a higher level of execution, Pavlyuchenkova increased her tally of forced errors/winners on return in 0-4 shots from a single winner in the first set to six in the second set.
Pavlyuchenkova also made the same adjustment as Sakkari, aiming almost exclusively for Krejcikova’s backhand on serve from thereon in5. It had the same desired effect, preventing Krejcikova from attacking the serve with her forehand.
Had Anastasia found her best tennis in the nick of time?
Set 3 Pavlyuchenkova 6-4: Capitalising on an injury
Pavlyuchenkova continued to find her range on return, cracking a backhand on the baseline on Krejcikova’s first service game of the third set.
After a medical timeout after sustaining a leg injury near the end of the second set, however, Pavlyuchenkova was slowing down and Krejcikova was alert to this.
She tempered the barrage of returns from the Russian with more of that salacious slider - she made a high percentage of first serves to counter the returns, making 25 of 30 first serves.
She also started moving Pavlyuchenkova around the court to take the legs from underneath her.
This is backed up by how often Krejcikova controlled the outcome of the longer rallies. In 16 of 20 points that went past five or more shots, Krejcikova hit a winner, forced error or unforced error, showing she dictated the outcome of these rallies.
The amount of points won is quite close as Krejcikova hit five unforced errors in this rally range and Pavlyuchenkova didn’t stop fighting until the last point.
In the end though, the tactical decision was enough for Krejcikova to survive a few uncharacteristic nervy mistakes nearing the finishing line.
Pavlyuchenkova’s backhand just misses the back edge of the line.
Barbora Krejcikova is the winner of the 2021 French Open.
Barbora Krejcikova at the French Open: Tournament Analysis
Mental… More so than you’d think in fact.
Krejcikova overcame some incredibly tense moments using all of the doubles experience available to her against Maria Sakkari.
Against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Krejcikova got off to a fast enough start and was able to take advantage of an injury from her opponent to win the title.
When she won, the Czech didn’t bat an eyelid. She was completely in the zone from the first point to the last and then some as the gravity of her achievement barely registered in her winner’s speech.
She may not have been the winner we expected but she’s the brand of hard-headed heroine that could flourish in tennis right now, matching the stoic resolve of the best in the women’s game a la Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek.
Well done Barbora on winning both the singles and the doubles this past week.
Czech and mate.
An article on the men’s side is in the works so watch this space…
Other French Open 2021 articles I gone and done:
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Data is limited before the third round as, due to being unseeded, full data sets were not being taken for Krejcikova’s matches.
An angled slice serve that moves away from the opponent. The best slider I can think of off the top of my head is perhaps Giles Muller’s lefty slider in the men’s game. Federer’s got a pretty nifty one too.
Krejcikova saved five set points in the first set against Coco Gauff. Four of these five were winners or forced errors.
Krejcikova hit 18 serves out wide to the deuce court throughout the match, first and second serves combined, and won 14 of these points. 10 of them went unreturned. This was a constant source of free points for the Czech. Pavlyuchenkova hit this part of the court six times with her serve and lost every point.
84% of serves were directed to Krejcikova’s backhand. 100% in the deuce court. This is a side note as too many numbers hurt my reader’s brains!