The Czech hopefuls defeated the British duo Hannah Klugman and Isabelle Lacy 6:4 and 7:5 in the final match in front of a large audience. It was not easy, the British women made up for the loss 1:5 in the second set. But the Czechs prevailed and deservedly won in the end.
“Now the closest goal is to win a Grand Slam in singles. Of course, the junior one for now, but later the big one as well,” says Laura’s father David Samson determinedly for Seznam Zprávy. “However, in my opinion, the nearest realistic is a semi-final. He will definitely go to the US Open. In the fall, he will gradually start playing ITF adult tournaments and try to grab some points,” he outlines the immediate strategy.
Sports talent of 2023
Photo: Jakub Čaja, Seznam Zpravy, AI visualization
Sports talent of 2023.
Seznam Zprávy is once again looking for the Czech Republic’s greatest sporting hopes. Watch the Sports Talent of the Year series. Together with the experts, we present to you eight extremely gifted athletes who excel in tennis, football, ice hockey, downhill skiing, rugby, volleyball, athletics and badminton. And last but not least, a gifted computer game player.
Jan Stočes, sports director of the tennis association, agrees that Laura is an extraordinary talent in Czech tennis. “Definitely Laura for me, but there are others behind her as well. Last year, our girls in her category won the EC and WC of teams. There are three excellent ones, but Laura and her Alenka Kovačková are still a little further away. Huge hopes of Czech tennis. After the Fruhvirt sisters, Nosková and others comes a new generation of girls who have a chance to play tennis at the highest level. This is very good news,” emphasizes Stočes for Seznam Zprávy.
Laura started playing tennis in Oáza Říčany near Prague, where she lived with her parents and brother 50 meters from the courts. At first she went to tennis just to watch. Then she tried it on the wall and was immediately hooked. “I think it was April 2012, she was four years old and something. We had no ambitions for her to become a professional athlete. There was no such plan,” points out David Samson.
At that time, Laura had a role model in her older – now eighteen-year-old – brother Oliver, who also started playing tennis at first. But then he switched to hockey and is not doing badly at all. At the age of 14, he got a chance to go to Sweden and already stayed there. So far, he has played in three clubs in the first Swedish league U16 and U18. According to his father, it benefited him immensely, he had to take care of himself, learn to be independent. And he is said to have far from said the last word in hockey.
Little Laura was immediately hooked on tennis, she was clearly a talent. She soon moved from Oáza to Sokol Říčany, where she started training with Eva Kovačková, the mother of her current Wimbledon doubles partner Alena.
Her athletic genes certainly helped her. Father David Samson played all kinds of sports since he was a child. From skiing to football and especially tennis. He also started playing floorball in college. Mom was involved in athletics.
Foto: Getty Images, Getty Images
Laura and Alena Kovačková pose with the trophy for Wimbledon winners.
Laura spent her childhood on the courts and spent a lot of time with Alena Kovačková. In her mother’s department, she received professional level training.
“She started playing baby tennis, they noticed her in Sparta and gave her a contract. Coach Petr Otradovský started taking care of her there. But because we lived in Říčany near the courts, she didn’t go to Sparta every day,” says father Samson.
At the same time, Laura normally attended Magic Hill elementary school in Říčany. It wasn’t until two years ago in the summer that her father went to France with her. She won the Open Stade Français, the tournament of the highest category of young talents, where the final is played at Roland Garros.
“That’s when her career changed and became more professional. She was noticed by a global Nike agent. Not because of the victory, but already during the tournament, because he liked her game. We got the contract and then Laura won one more tournament in France, so she got two Nos in a row. Both were U14 tournaments, but she was only 13, so she actually won a year earlier,” her father describes the shift in Laura’s career.
She then headed to the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca. Meanwhile, she won the Masters in Monte Carlo, a sort of Tournament of Champions, which she thoroughly enjoyed. And in the fall, she got her first free card from the association to Prostějov for the first U18 junior tournament. She won him right away.
“She has jumped up the rankings so much that she has already started playing higher category tournaments to collect more points. Now, if she wants to be good, and she wants to be, she has to constantly improve her game. I think she literally grew up on defeat, it hardened her and pushed her. For me, it is important that at this age she can lose and take something from those losses and move on.”
The Czech Republic has an excellent system of national tennis centers and top centers. Even so, parents are an absolutely essential factor, without whom it simply cannot be done. We are very grateful to them for their great self-sacrifice.
Jan Stočes, sports director of the Czech Tennis Association
According to David Samson, there is no rush. Tennis itself is only a small part of the preparation at this stage. He still needs to improve his body work. It’s about fitness, about regeneration. “Both Sparta and Olympus offer great conditions. She goes regularly for massages, physio…”
In the Czech Republic, Laura is now being looked after as a personal trainer by Lukáš Jedlička, at Sparta by head coach Daniel Filjo. But since the beginning of the year, he has also had a foreign coach, who himself offered to help. They consult with him a lot remotely, he is more like an advisor, a mentor.
According to Samson, sleep and diet are equally important. “When a tennis player travels, it’s difficult with food, but he has to look for a diet with a high protein content. Especially when the tennis player is waiting, and she is actually still waiting for something, so she has to eat faster sugars, pasta, chicken. My wife and I keep an eye on it, and she also supplements her diet with protein drinks.”
What else does Laura need to improve? It should mainly strengthen the legs and the middle of the body. So that she can play adult tennis, which is different from junior tennis after all.
Interview? Sure, English
How is she? According to father David Samson, she is smart, has a varied game, good swing. In the future, her strengths should be serve and forehand. Before, the girls beat her through the backhand, but she moved that too. He also plays short games, on the net. They always admired her for going for points and not standing on the baseline. She likes a varied game.
“Laura is very communicative, ambitious, gets her own way, doesn’t mess around with anything. When she enjoys something, she does it well. But it’s not just in tennis. She can speak English well, the school has moved her a lot. He has been giving interviews in English since he was 13 years old,” says the father.
By the way, about that school, she studied the eighth and ninth grades remotely, which means that she always came to exams once every six months. And she did the final ones at the end of June. Of course, he will continue his studies at the Spektrum secondary school in Mladá Boleslav with a focus on the business academy. And it will be remotely again.
Her daily routine is relentless. He gets up in the morning, takes a cold shower, exercises, then has breakfast, goes to training or a match, in the evening the gym, stretches…
She says she likes soccer lately, even though she’s not very good at it. She was in the drama club at school. By all accounts, she would enjoy acting.
Jan Stočes on young Czech tennis
At the age of eighteen, he had to end his active tennis career due to health problems. He immediately threw himself into coaching and made it far. In 2017, he was even named the best coach on the ATP circuit. Today, the sports director of the Czech Tennis Association (ČTS).
“I think that, considering how small a country we are, Czech tennis is an absolute phenomenon. I’ve been coaching for over 20 years, now I’m the sporting director, and when I see other nations bowing down to us, it’s almost unbelievable.”
It is important that the system of national tennis centers (Sparta, Štvanice, Prostějov) still operates in the Czech Republic. This is followed by top centers where there is a concentration of the best players and coaches, which is the essence of the matter. And this system is connected with the almost perfect system of Czech tournaments, where Czech points are played for. ČTS organizes the maximum number of Tennis Europe and ITF tournaments for children and junior players. This is followed by the ATP Challenger and Future tournaments and the ITF for women. In this way, our tennis players can collect their first points and thereby reach and move up in the world rankings. “Also Laura Samson will now progress to the women’s system, she will need wild cards and she will receive them from the tennis association. This is the chance for her to reach the world rankings.”
She also sees it as important that the girls go through the team competition, which is preparation for being able to represent in the Billie Jean King Cup.
And why are Czech girls better than boys so far? “Our guys are also picking up. But in general, for boys, parents see hockey, football and then tennis in the first place, which is also an extremely expensive sport. Only the top 100 in the world make a living in tennis, and the good, fierce, strong guys just run away to other sports. The girls don’t have a hockey or soccer league, so the prospect of them succeeding in tennis is very tempting. That is the reality of today.’
“We enjoy it. It’s a beautiful world. A lot of people think that someone is always directing you, but what I like about it is the freedom that we choose the tournament ourselves. No one tells us where to go, we have to arrange everything ourselves. Accommodation, food, flights…,” says David Samson. At the same time, he emphasizes that he is happy for the help of the tennis association. That he organizes representative trips, where the players have support, because he knows how much money it costs parents. That he organizes tournaments at home and gives them wild cards, i.e. free cards.
And how much has Laura already earned? This is said to be a frequent question today. “But juniors don’t earn a penny. Junior tennis is an amateur sport,” emphasizes David Samson.
