Barbora Krejcikova has paid tribute to Martina Navratilova for her support before the French Open final against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Czech player won 6-1 2-6 6-4 in an eventful match.
Both players were playing in their first Grand Slam final but it was Krejcikova who started the strongest as she dominated the opener taking it 6-1.
But the Russian responded by taking the second set 6-2 to level the match.
The third set between them was tight but it was Krejcikova who managed to hold her nerve to serve out the match.
After the match she said: “This is something I always dreamed of.
“Having Martina here watching and texting me, trying to prepare me for all of this, because, Jana (Novotna) is no longer here so there must be somebody else that is doing the job for her.”
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“It was a random final, you just couldn’t foresee her winning this tournament but if you look back at her results and how calm and collected she was and got herself out of trouble in all of her matches, it was richly deserved.”
Evert also emphasised with the Czech’s nerves as Krejcikova closed in on the biggest moment of her career.
She added: “At 5-3 I thought ‘please don’t throw this away’ because she had unforced errors and you could tell she was so nervous.
“They changed sides and she just had to reset and collect herself and say ‘I’m not going to let this go’ and she came through in the end.”
