2 years after French Open title, 1 12 months after 1st-round loss, COVID, Krejcikova goals to overlook

PARIS — Two years in the past on the French Open, Barbora Krejcikova arrived comparatively unknown and comparatively unaccomplished – and left with championships in each singles and doubles, one thing no girl had executed at Roland Garros in additional than 20 years.

A 12 months in the past on the French Open, Krejcikova got here in after three months off due to an elbow damage and her title protection in singles ended with a first-round loss, solely the third ever by the earlier 12 months’s champion in additional than a half-century of the Open period.

And then her title protection in doubles ended earlier than that occasion started because of a constructive check for COVID-19, which hit her so onerous she didn’t get away from bed for 4 days.

As Krejcikova ready to return to motion in Paris on Tuesday, going through Lesia Tsurenko at Court 7, this a lot was clear in her thoughts: She doesn’t wish to dwell on what occurred in Paris both of the previous two years.

“It all happened, but I’m definitely not thinking about it anymore,” Krejcikova mentioned in an interview with The Associated Press. “What happened last year, happened last year. What happened two years ago, happened two years ago. Now I’m living in the present and I’m here.”

That she would wish to overlook her 2022 journey to Paris, fake it by no means occurred, each due to the fast defeat and due to the sickness? That is sensible. That’s completely relatable.

That she would harbor an analogous sentiment about 2021, when she produced probably the most triumphant two weeks of her skilled life? Hmmm.

When that query was put to the 27-year-old from the Czech Republic, she reconsidered. OK, there are some good vibes that come again and she or he is keen to take pleasure in.

“Definitely every time I come here, and every time I step into this stadium, I always smile, because I feel really good here,” she mentioned with a smile.

“What happened two years ago? I just never actually thought this could happen. As a little kid, you have this dream: You see players playing the big tournaments and they’re winning them, and you’re thinking, ‘Maybe one day? Or maybe not? Should I go to school? Should I not?’ And then it actually came true. Out of nowhere. Unexpected,” Krejcikova mentioned. “It’s very nice that I can say that I’m a Grand Slam champion.”

She rose as excessive as No. 2 within the WTA rankings and is at present thirteenth. While the names on everybody’s lips because the elite of ladies’s tennis this season are Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, Krejcikova considers herself somebody to not be forgotten.

“I feel,” she mentioned, “that I’m part of the players that are really close to them.”

Krejcikova proved that at a hard-court match in Dubai in February, when she took the title by beating the highest three ladies within the rankings — No. 1 Swiatek, No. 2 Sabalenka and No. 3 Jessica Pegula — together with one other Top 10 opponent, Daria Kasatkina, and one other Grand Slam champion, two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova.

That offered a lift of confidence.

But solely briefly.

And the best way she described that week-in, week-out tour life provides some perception into why she may be a tad conflicted about focusing an excessive amount of on what occurred in 2021 and 2022 on the French Open.