Marketa Vondrousova, who beat fellow teenager Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 6-0 in the second round of the French Open on Wednesday, is the latest in a line of women from the Czech Republic who are scaling the heights of tennis.
Petra Kvitova, Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova have tasted success in recent times, and previously, under Czechoslovakia, Hana Mandalikova, Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova had Grand Slam wins.
But Vondrousova, 19, is also part of the different clique – teenagers threatening to take over the tennis world in the years to come, alongside Americans Amanda Anisimova (17) and Cori Gauff (15), Dayana Yastremska (19) of Ukraine, Canadian Bianca Andreescu (18) and Marta Kostyuk (16) of Ukraine.
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In 2017, Vondrousova got through qualifying at the Ladies Open Biel Bienne in Switzerland, then beat Annika Beck, Kristyna Pliskovs, Strycova and Anett Kontaveit to win her maiden WTA title in only her second main-draw appearance.
The Czech left-hander has reached two finals on the WTA Tour this year, losing at Budapest to Alison Van Uytvanck and at Istanbul to Petra Martic. She’s also had runs to the quarterfinals at Indian Wells and Prague. But her best performance was at the US Open last September, when she beat Mona Barthel, Eugenie Bouchard and Kiki Bertens before losing to Lesia Tsurenko in the fourth round.
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