Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová

Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová

Záhlavová-Strýcová at the 2011 Australian Open
Full name	Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová
Country	Czech Republic
Born	(1986-03-28) 28 March 1986 (age 27) Plzeň, Czechoslovakia
Height	1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)
Turned pro	2003
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$2,258,511
Singles
Career record	344–246
Career titles	1 WTA, 9 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 39 (19 July 2010)
Current ranking	No. 118 (17 June 2013)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	3R (2011)
French Open	2R (2004)
Wimbledon	3R (2008, 2010)
US Open	2R (2009)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2004)
Doubles
Career record	280–158
Career titles	17 WTA, 9 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 14 (31 January 2011)
Current ranking	No. 48 (17 June 2013)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	3R (2008, 2011)
French Open	3R (2006, 2010)
Wimbledon	3R (2005, 2009, 2010, 2011)
US Open	QF (2011)
Other Doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2004)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2010)
French Open	2R (2010, 2011)
Wimbledon	QF (2004)
US Open	QF (2011)
Last updated on: 17 June 2013.

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 singles ranking has been world number 39, a ranking she achieved on 19 July 2010.

Career[edit]

Early years[edit]

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 world number 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.^[1] 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 in the first round to Tatiana Perebiynis. She finished the year ranked world number 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 WTA 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-Raphaël, France. She finished the season ranked world number 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 of the world rankings 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 at 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 year-end finish.

2009[edit]

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, Slovakia, where she reached the semifinals, before qualifying and winning her first round match at the US Open, losing to Victoria Azarenka in the second round. 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[edit]

Záhlavová at 2010 US Open

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 world number 69 by the end of the year.

2011[edit]

Záhlavová-Strýcová defeated Marina Erakovic in the final of the 2011 Bell Challenge to claim her first WTA singles title.

2013[edit]

Záhlavová-Strýcová was banned for six months, backdated to 16 October 2012 until 15 April 2013, for doping. The ban disqualified all results during the period of the ban and mandates the return of all prizes won during that period.^[2] Záhlavová-Strýcová made her return at the 2013 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. She lost in first round of qualifying to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni. In the first round of doubles, she and partner Julia Görges lost to the pairing of Liezel Huber and Janette Husárová. In May, she won the 2013 Empire Slovak Open, a $75,000 ITF event, and her first tournament win since coming back from her ban.

Court demeanor[edit]

She is noted for her changeover tantrums and racket abuse.^[3] 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.^[3] In 2010 at Wimbledon, in a match against Maria Sharapova she twice slammed her racket on the ground.^[4]

Personal life[edit]

She is related to tennis player Sandra Záhlavová by marriage — she is the wife of Záhlavová's cousin, former tennis player, Jakub Herm-Záhlava. He is also her coach, having been in that position since 2007.^[5]

WTA career finals[edit]

Singles: 3 (1–2)[edit]

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	18 July 2010	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Ágnes Szávay	2–6, 6–1, 2–6
Winner	1.	18 September 2011	Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Marina Erakovic	4–6, 6–1, 6–0
Runner-up	2.	9 July 2012	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Sara Errani	1–6, 3–6

Doubles: 27 (17–10)[edit]

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	20 February 2005	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Ľubomíra Kurhajcová	Emmanuelle Gagliardi Tina Pisnik	4–6, 3–6
Winner	1.	1 May 2005	Warsaw, Poland	Clay	Tatiana Perebiynis	Klaudia Jans Alicja Rosolska	6–1, 6–4
Winner	2.	8 May 2005	Rabat, Morocco	Clay	Émilie Loit	Lourdes Domínguez Lino Nuria Llagostera Vives	3–6, 7–6(8–6), 7–5
Runner-up	2.	15 May 2005	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Jelena Kostanić	Nicole Pratt Émilie Loit	7–6(8–6), 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up	3.	2 January 2006	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Émilie Loit	Elena Likhovtseva Vera Zvonareva	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	6 January 2008	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Martina Müller	Lilia Osterloh Mariya Koryttseva	3–6, 4–6
Winner	3.	3 August 2008	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Iveta Benešová	Petra Cetkovská Lucie Šafářová	7–5, 6–4
Runner-up	5.	2 March 2009	Monterrey, Mexico	Hard	Iveta Benešová	Nathalie Dechy Mara Santangelo	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	6.	13 July 2009	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Iveta Benešová	Kateryna Bondarenko Alona Bondarenko	1–6, 2–6
Winner	4.	14 September 2009	Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Vania King	Sofia Arvidsson Séverine Beltrame	6–1, 6–3
Winner	5.	25 October 2009	Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Hard (i)	Iveta Benešová	Vladimíra Uhlířová Renata Voráčová	6–1, 0–6, [10–7]
Winner	6.	14 February 2010	Paris, France	Hard (i)	Iveta Benešová	Cara Black Liezel Huber	w/o
Winner	7.	28 February 2010	Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Polona Hercog	Sara Errani Roberta Vinci	2–6, 6–1, [10–2]
Winner	8.	7 March 2010	Monterrey, Mexico	Hard	Iveta Benešová	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Vania King	3–6, 6–4, [10–8]
Runner-up	7.	10 July 2010	Båstad, Sweden	Clay	Renata Voráčová	Gisela Dulko Flavia Pennetta	6–7(0–7), 0–6
Runner-up	8.	19 September 2010	Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Sofia Arvidsson Johanna Larsson	1–6, 6–2, 6–10
Winner	9.	2 October 2010	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Iveta Benešová	Shahar Pe'er Peng Shuai	6–4, 4–6, [10–8]
Winner	10.	7 October 2010	Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Renata Voráčová	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	7–5, 7–6(8–6)
Runner-up	9.	24 October 2010	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard (i)	Iveta Benešová	Timea Bacsinszky Tathiana Garbin	4–6, 4–6
Winner	11.	14 January 2011	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Iveta Benešová	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	4–6, 6–4, [10–7]
Winner	12.	6 March 2011	Monterrey, Mexico	Hard	Iveta Benešová	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Vania King	6–7(8–10), 6–2, [10–6]
Winner	13.	1 May 2011	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Iveta Benešová	Natalie Grandin Vladimíra Uhlířová	5–7, 6–4, [11–9]
Winner	14.	18 June 2011	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Klára Zakopalová	Dominika Cibulková Flavia Pennetta	1–6, 6–4, [10–7]
Winner	15.	25 October 2011	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard (i)	Iveta Benešová	Lucie Hradecká Ekaterina Makarova	7–5, 6–3
Winner	16.	29 April 2012	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Iveta Benešová	Julia Görges Anna-Lena Grönefeld	6–4, 7–5
Winner	17.	14 July 2012	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Renata Voráčová	Darija Jurak Katalin Marosi	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Runner-up	10.	14 October 2012	Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Julia Görges	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Květa Peschke	3–6, 4–6

Grand Slam performance timeline[edit]

Singles[edit]

Doubles[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová

• Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová at the Women's Tennis Association
• Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová at the International Tennis Federation
• Official website

v t e Women's Tennis Association: Top Czech female singles tennis players as of 17 June 2013 1. Petra Kvitová (8 ) 2. Lucie Šafářová (28 2) 3. Klára Zakopalová (33 ) 4. Karolína Plíšková (76 2) 5. Lucie Hradecká (89 1) 6. Andrea Hlaváčková (95 2) 7. Kristýna Plíšková (103 2) 8. Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová (118 9) 9. Eva Birnerová (155 1) 10. Petra Cetkovská (171 4)

v t e Women's Tennis Association: Top Czech female doubles tennis players as of 17 June 2013 1. Andrea Hlaváčková (4 ) 2. Lucie Hradecká (6 ) 3. Květa Peschke (17 1) 4. Lucie Šafářová (18 1) 5. Vladimíra Uhlířová (44 ) 6. Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová (48 ) 7. Eva Birnerová (79 1) 8. Renata Voráčová (83 4) 9. Eva Hrdinová (84 1) 10. Klára Zakopalová (110 2)