Outgoing Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova explains tearful outburst as she suffers rankings collapse
Defending Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova failed to contain her anguish as she crashed out of Wimbledon in the third round and suffered a calamitous rankings collapse.
After a year of injury woe since her shock win at Wimbledon last July, Krejcikova has failed to defend the 2,000 ranking points she won at the All England Club last summer and she broke down in tears as she lost against American 10th seed Emma Navarro 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Krejcikova broke down in tears on court towards the end of the match, with her projected live WTA Rankings sinking 61 places to No 77 after this third round exit at the All England Club.
She composed herself to face the media after the defeat and it was clear that this one stung for the Czech star.
“All I can say that the first half of the match I was definitely enjoying myself on the court and I was feeling quite well, but then suddenly out of nowhere I just lost all my energy and I couldn’t really gain it back,” she said.
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“I mean, Emma was just fitter than me. Yeah, I was having more energy, controlling the match at the end.
“First of all, I thought that it was the food, that I ate too early.
“That’s why I started with all the bananas and all the sugars and stuff inside. But I wasn’t really feeling better, I was actually feeling worse and worse with the time on court.
“Obviously, she’s a top-10 player. She’s a good player. She is having a lot of great achievements. Yeah, obviously it was difficult, yeah. I mean, that’s pretty much it.
“I wish her all the best for the next matches. Yeah, I’m definitely looking forward for the revenge in the future.
“Unfortunately, yeah, it ended up this way, which is just very unfortunate and really sad and disappointing for me.”
The fallout from this defeat will rock Krejcikova for a long time to come, as she will now not gain automatic entry into a lot of top tier WTA Tour events.
That will impact her hopes of climbing back up the rankings and she may have to take a step back from elite WTA Tour events as she looks to regain her footing in the sport.
Her first priority will be getting fit, as the last 12 months have been a challenging time for a player who has not be able to perform as she wants at the highest level.
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