At only fourteen years old, Jana Kovačková chases the best junior women in the world. She is the youngest tennis player in the top 100 of the junior rankings, and in recent months she has bought one success after another. “She has great inner strength,” comments on her potential, head coach of Sparta Prague, Daniel Filjo. But at the same time, he warns, the path between adult stars is treacherous and full of obstacles.
The Czech Republic is pampering itself with another significant tennis promise.
Last week, the Kovačkov sisters conquered the tournament in Sanxenx, Spain. Together they dominated the doubles and faced each other in the singles final. Fourteen-year-old Jana beat Alena 6:4, 6:2, two years older.
The young hope already won eight singles and seven doubles trophies on the junior ITF circuit this year. In the ranking, it flies up sharply every week, now up twenty-two places to the current 23rd position.
At the same time, no other girl born in 2010 figures in the elite hundred.
Kovačková, who started playing tennis at the age of three under the guidance of her father on the courts of the tennis club TK Písnice, has been growing into a generational talent in recent years.
“Jana is a very skilful player who has belonged to the absolute top since she was young. She plays a very active attacking game, which she can mix variously with other strikes. She can read her opponents well and react to changes during matches,” Filjo describes her.
“She can play balanced matches with older players and keep up with them,” he adds.
However, he does not want to talk too much about the potential towards a later adult career. Fourteen is too early for that.
“Successes are nice and tennis also needs them in the category of younger players. However, they do not guarantee anything for an adult career. There, you have to be strong and mentally, the body has to handle more demanding matches with older players. Everyone matures differently and you cannot measure yourself only with prodigies, that’s a small percentage,” warns Filjo.
According to him, Kovačková nevertheless possesses very promising attributes.
“Jana’s character is internally strong. She has a strong background, both parents are experienced coaches, but at the top level it is not only about tennis, but also diet, conditioning, physiotherapy, regeneration and mental preparation. This is Sparta’s strong point,” says the head coach and praises the club’s relatively recent cooperation with mental coach David Vavruška, a former well-known football coach.
According to Filj, Kovačková will follow a similar path as his current main charge Laura Samson, currently the third player in the world junior ranking. She will gradually focus on women’s tournaments from the age of sixteen.
“The first two years she will focus on the junior girls and aim for the grand slams. In recent years we have succeeded at Sparta when the girls have been successful at the grand slams, be it Lucie Havlíčková, Tereza Valentová or Laura Samson. They are all similar in age and also in playing style . He’s not afraid to play his game,” explains the coach.
Kovačková was part of the under-14 national team at the last two world titles, in July at Wimbledon she celebrated a bit in the shadow of Barbora Krejčíková’s phenomenal triumph. At the All England Club, she became the first Czech to win the under-14 tournament, which will be played as part of the most famous Grand Slam from 2022.
An admirer of Markéta Vondroušová, Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenková, she followed up on an equally valuable record from the end of last year, when she conquered the Orange Bowl in Florida, considered by many the most prestigious junior event in the world.
Before that, she won the Junior Masters under 14 in Monte Carlo in November.
Her older sister Alena Kovačková also has significant successes in her pocket, she won the doubles junior title at Wimbledon last year alongside Laura Samson.
