Barbora Krejcikova becomes the eighth unseeded French Open women’s finalist in the Open Era

Barbora Krejcikova (Tatiana Kulita, Wikimedia Commons)

Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic is in the French Open women’s singles final on Saturday. What makes Krejcikova’s run at Roland Garros this week significant is the fact that she got to the French Open women’s singles final as an unseeded player.

Krejcikova becomes the eighth women’s player since the 1968 Open Era began to reach the final of a grand slam. She follows Helen Gourlay Cawley of Australia (1971), Renata Tomanova of the Czech Republic (1976), Florenta Mihai of Romania (1977), Mima Jausovec of Yugoslavia (1983), Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia (2017), Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic (2019), and Iga Swiatek of Poland (2020). Of the eight aforementioned unseeded French Open finalists, only two won the championship. Ostapenko defeated Romania’s Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Swiatek defeated American Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 last year.

Krejcikova reached the final on Thursday by beating 17th-ranked Maria Sakkari of Greece, 7-5, 4-6, 9-7, in the semifinal. The match had significant controversy as chair umpire Pierre Bacchi incorrectly called a Sakkari shot in on match point earlier in the match, when the Sakkari shot was out by a wide margin. The incorrect call further enhances the argument that the French Tennis Federation needs to get out of the stone age immediately and use the hawkeye system like the other three grand slam events.

Now Krejcikova will face the 31st-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in the final. In the other semifinal, Pavlyuchenkova defeated another unseeded player in Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia, 7-5, 6-3.

No player from the Czech Republic has ever won a grand slam final in women’s singles at the French Open. Lucie Safarova reached the final in 2015 before losing to American Serena Williams, and Vondrousova reached the final in 2019 before losing to Australian Ashleigh Barty.

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