Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová

Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈbarbora ˈzaːɦlavovaː ˈstriːtsovaː]; born Barbora Strýcová 28 March 1986 in Plzeň) is a professional female tennis player from the Czech Republic.

Her highest WTA Ranking has been World No. 39, a ranking she achieved on 19 July 2010. She is related to tennis player Sandra Záhlavová by marriage—she is the wife of Záhlavová's cousin.

She is noted for her changeover tantrums and racket abuse.^[1]

Career

Early years

Záhlavová-Strýcová was a strong junior player, winning two Grand Slams in girls' singles: the 2002 Australian Open and then defending that title at the 2003 Australian Open. She also won three Grand Slam girls' doubles titles between 2001 and 2003.

She reached No. 1 in both singles and doubles on the junior rankings, achieving both in 2002, and was named the ITF Junior World Champion that same year.^[2] In her junior career, she beat several players who went on to become notable professionals such as Maria Sharapova, Anna-Lena Grönefeld, Tatiana Golovin, Shahar Pe'er, and Maria Kirilenko.

Turning professional in 2003, Záhlavová-Strýcová had already worked her ranking into the top 300 after some good results in ITF Women's Circuit events over 2002. She continued to play mostly ITF Circuit events throughout the year, and made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon, qualifying and losing first round to Tatiana Perebiynis. She finished the year ranked at No. 161.

2004 turned out to be the year that Záhlavová-Strýcová stepped up considerably. She began the year by qualifying for the Australian Open and then reached the fourth round at the major tournament in Indian Wells, beating seeded player Eleni Daniilidou before losing to Justine Henin, a result that broke her into the top 100 for the first time. She recorded another notable win over Anna Smashnova in Amelia Island, and won her first two Grand Slam main draw matches at the Australian Open and French Open. After hitting a rough patch in the middle part of the season, she finished the year strongly by reaching her first WTA semifinal at an event in Guangzhou and winning an ITF event in Saint Raphael, France. She finished the season ranked at No. 56.

Záhlavová-Strýcová's progress took a step backwards in 2005, dropping out of the top 100 in the world after failing to back up her breakthrough season and winning just 17 matches throughout the season. Despite this, she achieved some notable results in doubles, reaching four WTA doubles finals and winning the title on two of those occasions. 2006 also begun poorly for her in singles, as she struggled to string together wins and subsequently dropped out of the top 200 in the world in April 2006 before recovering slightly after some good results in ITF events. In 2007, Záhlavová-Strýcová played mostly on the ITF circuit once more and achieved some good results, reaching several semifinals throughout the season, but still sat outside the top 100.

After a few years seemingly in limbo, Záhlavová-Strýcová's plugging away in ITF events finally managed to bring with it some results by 2008, winning titles in Fort Walton Beach, Redding (both American events) and Szczecin, Poland and reaching the second round in WTA events in Amelia Island and Charleston. She qualified for Wimbledon and made the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career thus returning to the top 100, where she remained until the end of the season, her second top 100 finish.

2009

Záhlavová-Strýcová failed to make any progress in her first five tournaments of the season, including at the Australian Open where she lost to Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, but she enjoyed some success in two small tournaments in Mexico, reaching the semifinals in Acapulco and the quarterfinals in Monterrey, beating top 20 player Flavia Pennetta at the latter event.

Following that, she returned to struggling ways, losing her opening match in all but three tournaments up to July. She fell out of the top 100 after Wimbledon, where she was defending third round points, by losing in the first round to Ekaterina Makarova.

Záhlavová-Strýcová's results improved during the latter part of the year, starting with a quarterfinal appearance at the WTA event in Bad Gastein, as well as reaching the doubles final in Prague. She then played a $25,000 in Trnava, Slovak Republic, where she reached the semifinals, before qualifying and winning her first round match at the US Open, losing to Victoria Azarenka in the second. She built on these performances in ITF Women's Circuit events at the end of the season, winning the $100,000+H event in Ortisei, Italy, and the $50,000+H event is Ismaning, Germany, and worked her way back into the top 100 for the end of the season. In doubles, she won two straight events at the WTA tournaments in Quebec City and Luxembourg, her fourth and fifth WTA doubles titles.

2010

At the 2010 Australian Open, Záhlavová-Strýcová won her first round against Regina Kulikova in a match that lasted 4 hours and 19 minutes – breaking the record for longest match in women's Grand Slam history (which itself was broken a year later by Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova). She lost in the second round to Dinara Safina. In February and March, she won three doubles titles in Paris, Acapulco and Monterrey, her sixth, seventh and eighth tournament wins in the doubles discipline.

At the French Open, Záhlavová-Strýcová lost in first round to Rossana de los Ríos, before reaching the third round of a Grand Slam for the second time at Wimbledon, where she beat Elena Vesnina and Daniela Hantuchová and lost to Maria Sharapova. Her Wimbledon performance boosted her confidence and thus at the ECM Prague Open she managed to make the first singles final of her career, dismantling Patty Schnyder with the loss of only two games in the semifinals. In the final, she lost to Ágnes Szávay. As a result of her recent form, she rose into the top 50 for the first time in singles following Prague.

Záhlavová-Strýcová continued to enjoy success in doubles for the rest of the season. With her regular partner Iveta Benešová, she won the biggest title of her career at the Premier 5 tournament in Tokyo, and then partnered Renata Voráčová to win Linz, helping her to finish the season in the top 20 of the doubles ranking. In singles competition, she struggled to build on her strong summer results, failing to advance in six of the ten tournaments she played following Prague, among them a first round loss at the US Open to Maria Kirilenko, thus dropping to No. 69 by the end of the year.

2011

She defeated New Zealand player Marina Erakovic 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 in the final of Bell Challenge to claim her first WTA singles title.

Court demeanor

She is noted for her changeover tantrums and racket abuse.^[1] In 2008 at the Bausch & Lomb Championships threw her tennis racket, slammed it against her shoe and the ground, and yelled at herself and the chair umpire.^[1] In 2010 at Wimbledon, in a match against Maria Sharapova she twice slammed her racket on the ground.^[3]

WTA Career Finals

Singles: 2 (1-1)