Salkova stuns Costoulas as Czech girls make their mark
It has long been a tennis truism that Czech Republic has strong representation at the top of the women’s game – and the next generation of Czech girls look set to continue that trend, with strong performances on the opening day of the Roland Garros junior tournament from four players who can all consider themselves title contenders.
The most-impressive of the successful Czech quartet on Sunday was Dominika Salkova, ranked at No. 25 in the ITF junior rankings but already inside the WTA Top 500, who defeated the No. 2 seed Sofia Costoulas 6-7(5) 6-1 6-3 to advance to the second round. Salkova’s compatriot Sara Bejlek, the 10th seed, overcame Michaela Laki of Greece 7-5 6-3.
There was further Czech success later in the day with No. 13 seed Nikola Bartunkova battling to a 3-6 7-6(1) 7-6(8) victory against American qualifier Sonya Macavei, and ninth seed Lucie Havlickova recording a 6-4 7-5 win over French wild card Lucie Pawlak.
Salkova, however, will claim most of the headlines after her performance on Sunday. Although the 17-year-old has enjoyed a good run of form in recent weeks, having won her first professional title at W25 Osijek earlier this month, she admitted that she had been disappointed at drawing Costoulas in the first round. The Belgian has also enjoyed a strong season, having reached the final at the Australian Open in January and won two Grade 1 clay court titles this season in the spring.
“Honestly, when I saw [the draw], it was like, I got so unlucky,” she said afterwards. “It was a really tough match. In the tiebreak, I made unforced errors but I didn't give up. I went to the bathroom, calmed myself. Then I just thought: ‘I'm going to win, just focus on my own game’. And suddenly my game got better. She made some mistakes, but I just kept believing in myself.”
Salkova’s reward is a second round clash against Slovakia’s Nina Vargova. And if she allows herself to look a little further ahead in the draw, she will see that Bejlek is a potential quarterfinal opponent. The No. 10 seed, who entered the draw using her impressive WTA ranking of No. 270, was forced to dig deep against Laki on Sunday before coming through in straight sets.
Bejlek has mainly concentrated on her professional career this season – like Salkova, she also claimed victory in a W25 event this month, lifting the trophy at W25 Santa Margherita di Pula. But she recognised that playing the junior event here this week would also present a stern test.
“Of course the best juniors players are here,” she said. “But I think it's already the same [standard of] matches as in the pro tournaments.”
Having plenty of teammates to practice with must help with preparations – and both Bejlek and Salkova were enthusiastic about the atmosphere in the Czech camp this year.
“It’s competitive, you know, we have nine very good players,” Salkova said. “But we support each other too and I hope that everyone will play very good tennis in the future.”
The top Czech junior player in the girls’ singles, Brenda Fruhvirtova, enters the fray on Monday when she faces Solana Sierra of Argentina. But three of the nine Czech entrants in the girls’ singles draw suffered defeats on the opening day: Linda Klimovicova, who lost to Luciana Moyano, Kristyna Tomjkova, who fell to sixth-seeded Liv Hovde, and Tereza Valentova, who impressed in a three-set defeat to the third seed and former Australian Open girls’ singles champion, Victoria Jiminez Kasintseva.
Elsewhere on day one, there were comfortable wins for top seed Petra Marcinko and fifth seed Diana Shnaider. In the boys’ draw, the top two seeds, Bruno Kuzuhara and Daniel Vallejo, both made it through to the second round, but the sixth seed, Peru’s Gonzalo Bueno, was beaten by an inspired performance by Swiss qualifier Dylan Dietrich.
Czech boys Jakub Mensik, this year’s Australian Open runner-up, and Jakub Nicod, the 16th seed, both recorded opening day gutsy three-set victories on Sunday – perhaps determined to prove that the future of Czech men’s tennis is also in safe hands.