Gabriela Knutsonová: The Czech-American Tennis Player Dreaming of Grand Slam Success

In her childhood, she constantly commuted between America and the Czech Republic. She spent half of each year with her family overseas, where she dedicated herself to skiing, and half of the year she swung a tennis racket in the middle of Europe, which she held in her hand for the first time as a two-year-old.

Tennis eventually won out in her sporting life. When she was thirteen, her family moved permanently to Bohemia. Knutsonová trained in Prostějov, where she met, for example, Petra Kvitová, Markéta Vondroušová and trained with Karolína Muchová or Tereza Smitková.

But her priorities were reversed in her teenage years, she longed to study at one of the American universities. At the prestigious Syracuse University in the state of New York, she got a bachelor’s degree in Television and Digital Journalism.

At the same time, she did not give up tennis completely, she made it to the post of the fourth best player in the US university competitions, and even won the award for sportswoman of the year at the university. After graduating from school, she moved to England and at Durham University added two master’s degrees to her portfolio in three years: in marketing and in renewable energy.

Only then did she regain her appetite for professional tennis. Since September, the twenty-six-year-old tennis player has been trying to establish herself on the circuit and is doing extremely well.

“In the fall, I signed up for a tournament in Shrewsbury and I met Karolína Muchová there years later. She wondered what I was doing there. So I told her: Well, I’m playing,” the tennis player laughs in an interview with Aktuálně.cz.

In less than a year, she reached just behind the top three hundred players in the world. The previously seemingly unattainable dream of participating in Grand Slam tournaments took on realistic contours.

When we arranged the interview, you signed your message as Gabriela Knutsonová. Otherwise, you are everywhere on the websites of tennis associations led by Gabriela Knutson. So how do you want to be written?

I don’t care a bit. I have an American passport and a Czech one, I am Knutson in the American one and Knutsonová in the Czech one. I’m still Czech, but both variants are comfortable for me. As you wish.

You speak Czech perfectly fluently. How are you with languages?

I have been speaking Czech and English since childhood. But when it comes to writing, I definitely feel better in English. I don’t write in Czech that well because I never went to a Czech school. I often make mistakes. You saw it yourself when we were writing.

I didn’t even notice…

I’m very happy about that.

When and why did you decide to represent the Czech Republic and not the USA? Have you ever faced this choice?

There was definitely some debate. In my youth, I also skied competitively, in America, and during the summer I played tennis again in the Czech Republic. If I continued to ski, I would probably ski under the American flag. But tennis won in the end, so I continued under the Czech flag. Naturally, it turned out that way.

You are almost among the top 300 female tennis players in the world, although until now tennis has not been your number one priority. Can it be said that it is unique in the wider tip? Or do you know someone else who ranks this high and would study so diligently?

I think it’s probably unique. I know that a lot of girls finished their bachelor’s degree, but then went on to play professionally. I went to England for another three years, which is such an extra step. I don’t know of anyone who has done the same.

When you have so many options, fields of study, plus tennis, what would you like to do for a living one day? What attracts you the most?

Tennis is number one now. I want to play for myself, I want to give it everything now, I would like to make a good living and enjoy it. But then I would like to go to work in renewable energies and deal with this sector. I’m very tempted by that. I already had various experiences, for example during covid I was an intern for nine months in an American non-profit organization dealing with renewable energies. I really enjoyed it – and I definitely want to go back to it when I’m done with tennis. But I want to have a tennis career as long as possible.

What about media given your major at Syracuse University? I saw in your introduction video that you also did an internship as a reporter and it seemed that this is exactly the direction you want to go. Does that no longer apply?

That’s another thing. Why not? If there was an opportunity to comment on tennis, for example, I liked it. I’m definitely not throwing this option away. I am also open to journalistic possibilities. After all, Syracuse University is one of the best journalism schools in America.

Wouldn’t it appeal to you to cover the topic of the environment in the media?

Yes, that would work too. I’m a bit injured now, so I have less training and in my spare time I’m currently writing an article for an American website about renewable energy, specifically biomass. Now it’s a hobby.

Staying on topic, do you feel that humanity is really moving forward on environmentalism, or is the change in thinking too slow? Are you more of an optimist or pessimist about the future of the planet?

Maybe more of a pessimist. I want to work in it, but I’m afraid of it. Precisely because, in my opinion, changes happen too slowly. We are so used to our capitalism and our current way of life that we are too far gone to change as quickly as we need to. It would be nice if we suddenly all had electric cars, there would be solar panels and wind turbines everywhere, but we are already so different that it is difficult. It will be hard to reverse, we need a lot of innovation and new technologies.

Going back to tennis: you picked up a racket for the first time at the age of two. What were your childhood dreams and ambitions and how did they change as you grew up?

Of course, I wanted to be the best in the world until about ten years old. In tennis and skiing. My mother was a professional alpine skier in the Czech Republic, one of the best in the country, the Olympics once missed her by one place (mother is Ilona Knutsonová, married Rejmánková – note aut.). We had these dreams together. But when I was a teenager and saw American universities, I became attracted to study. The goals have completely changed. I wanted to write, I had completely different hobbies. The main goal was to get into college. When I was seventeen, I injured my wrist for about a year, so I didn’t get into the best tennis universities. But I got into a top university.

But you also played tennis at Syracuse and did well…

Yes, much. Before, I was often stressed at tournaments, but now I played without fear, I was relaxed. But there was too much to do with my studies, I used to be so exhausted in the summer that I didn’t even want to see the racket. That only changed during my studies in England, when I started enjoying it again and wanted to start playing professionally. I even headed the entire tennis program at Durham University for the last year. Suddenly it was under my direction, it was my decision that I wanted to play again. And I think that’s why I’m playing so well now. I just felt like it.

So what tennis ambitions and dreams do you have at the moment?

I would really like to get to the Grand Slam. In September, when I started, it was really just a dream, but now it’s a goal. We’ll see when I get there. I’m realistic, I know I haven’t trained properly for seven years. That’s why I make a lot of mistakes in technique. For years I was used to playing against people who were worse than me. I could make mistakes and still win. Now I’m trying to improve, it either works or it doesn’t.

And will it work without a coach, which you don’t have?

I do not know. I think not (laughs). Now I live in Nottingham, England, there is a tournament going on here, I go to watch, but I can’t play because of a sore wrist. I train here because I don’t have the money to pay for an academy, housing, a professional personal trainer or a fitness trainer. Everything is free here, I’m part of the program. There are coaches here, but they are not mine.

So you really can’t afford a trainer?

Yes, I can’t. My mother is a teacher in the Czech Republic, I also have a nineteen-year-old brother who will also go to America for university. There is not much money. We will see what my performance ceiling will be without a coach and without finances. I haven’t come across it yet, which always surprises me. But I’m worried about two things: that I’ll hit the ceiling because I took seven years off from professional tennis and that I don’t have money for a coach and other things. I’m still a little stressed about it. Right now I’m just pissed off that I can’t play tournaments here when they’re only a short distance from home. Instead I have to fly to Georgia in May and pay $100 a night for two weeks.

Of course, tennis is an expensive sport, and those who are not in the top 100 have a lot of problems securing trips to tournaments and other things. Recently, however, there has been more discussion about the fact that there should be more support for the lower ranked, so that tennis is not such an elitist sport that two hundred people in the world make a living from. Do you see a chance to improve it?

Just today I read an article about someone proposing to give minimum wage to the top 300 in the rankings. That would help me a lot. Knowing that when I’m in the 300s, I’ll have like $500 each month, that would be a big help. It’s constant stress. A bit of a killer.

Last year you played in Přerov and Olomouc. How long have you been in the Czech Republic and how was it for you?

I came and met people I hadn’t seen in almost ten years. My family from Dvor Králové also came to see. It was very nice. I surprised myself there, I wrote my diploma all summer, I played twice a week and then it was not bad at tournaments in the Czech Republic. I will definitely come again in the summer.