She fell to her knees and buried her head in her hands. The euphoric smile was soon replaced by tears of happiness. Brenda Fruhvirtová won her first Grand Slam at the age of sixteen. She advanced to the second round at the Australian Open and made tennis history in recent years.
The youngest of the Czech tennis sisters is once again causing a stir on the tennis scene. On the third attempt, Brenda Fruhvirtová won in the first round of the Grand Slam tournament.
From the position of 110th player in the world, she stepped up to fifteen years older Romanian Ana Bogdanova, the 66th tennis player in the WTA rankings.
She thus followed up on the milestone she achieved a week ago in Auckland. In New Zealand, she claimed her first win on the main circuit and the first scalp of a player from the top 100.
Now she added the first Grand Slam win of her career, again against a higher-ranked tennis player.
Fruhvirtova became the youngest girl to win a match in an Australian Open main event since current world number four and US Open champion Coco Gauff’s feat in 2020.
She met the star American just in Auckland, and despite her clear win over the young Czech, Gauff looked like one of the stars of the future.
“I’ve known her since she was about ten years old. We used to train together in France at the same academy with Patrick Mouratoglou. It’s great to see her on tour and I’m sure she’ll go far,” she said.
Fruhvirtová now confirmed her words. Just like a year ago, she managed to pass the three-round qualification, even though she had to avert a match point in the second round.
“In case you’ve been living in a cave somewhere and didn’t know, Brenda Fruhvirtova is truly something special,” tennis magazine The Tennis Letter wrote on the X social network.
The tennis world was amazed by the way the Czech came out victorious against the Romanian. At first glance, the statistics do not correspond at all to the result of 2:6, 6:4, 6:3.
Fruhvirtová made 43 unforced errors in the duel, two more than her opponent. In addition, Bogdanová also dominated in the winning balls, significantly: she hit thirty-three of them compared to only fifteen from the racket of the Czech player.
But even more activity did not help her, she appeared at the net in 24 exchanges with a success rate of 46 percent, Fruhvirtová went for the volley only five times and it paid off in only two cases. Nevertheless, thanks to her combativeness, she found a way to triumph and can look forward to the expected fight with the defending champion Aryna Sabalenkova.
“I fought until the end. It wasn’t easy for me today, I had problems with my wrist. I was especially sore in the first set. Of course, I don’t want to make excuses for that, but it was very challenging for me,” Fruhvirtová was quoted by the Tenisovýsvět.cz website.
“After the lost set, I said to myself that I have to fight, because there are only four Grand Slams in a year. I fought and tried to win as many exchanges as possible. I got a little rhythm, then I felt a little better,” she added.
Fruhvirtová is one of the three symbols of the uprising of sixteen-year-old teenage girls at this year’s Australian Open.
A similarly young Russian Alina Kornějeva advanced to the second round on the opening day. At this stage of the Grand Slam, two such young tennis players were last at Wimbledon 2007, it was Caroline Wozniacki and Tamira Paszek. In addition, sixteen-year-old Mirra Andrejevová, already the 47th player in the world, will also appear in the first round.
2024-01-14 10:54:02
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