Krejcikova, Rybakina exit leaves door open for new champion

written by Atharva Jori

Barbora Krejcikova took a brief pause, then bent down, hands on knees, trying to gather her thoughts and emotions. And probably hope that her body would somehow hold together. She did this many times in the second half of her third round match at Wimbledon. But as the tame forehand return that crashed into the net on match point suggested, Krejcikova was far from her physical best. In a 6-2, 3-6, 4-6 loss to 10th seed Emma Navarro of the USA, the Czech defending women’s champion was out in the third round. A few hours earlier on Saturday, Danish player Clara Tauson beat the Kazakh 2022 winner Elena Rybakina. The two results ensured that there will be a new women’s champion when the tournament reaches its business end next weekend. The way the match started though it certainly did not look like Krejcikova would be the one to face defeat. The 29-year-old started the match in imposing form. She dominated rallies, broke Navarro’s serve twice while not facing a single break point on her own serve as she took the opening set 6-2. Suddenly, the accuracy in her strokes dipped and the solidity on the serve deserted her. At the same time, Navarro started to put more balls back in play and forced the struggling Krejcikova to spend more energy to play yet another shot. By most accounts, the double grand slam winner was not widely expected to retain her title given the fitness issues she has faced this season. The world No.16 had pulled out of the Australian Open with a back injury and only returned to the tour in May, a week before the French Open. Coming into Wimbledon, she had a 3-3 win-loss record for this season, but did impress in the way she managed to eke out tight three set-wins in her opening two matches, against Alexandra Eala and Caroline Dolehide.

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