A cruel beating was expected, 16-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtová should not have had the slightest chance to compete against world number two and defending champion Aryna Sabalenkova in her premiere in the famous Rod Laver Arena. Yes, Belarus fulfilled the role of the total favorite, but the young Czech entertained the audience in Melbourne with her courageous performance. And the striker from Minsk managed to win five games despite health problems.
According to all forecasts, the 16-year-old qualifier was not supposed to have the weapons to face the brutal power of last year’s Australian Open champion. But in the end she surprised.
In the first set at 3:3, she was able to get Sabalenko in a tight spot, the Belarusian often threw her hands around, she seemed nervous.
“Brenda didn’t play badly at all. She created angles, she slowed down the game smartly, it was a very solid performance from her. I’m sure she will have success,” former British tennis player, former world number four Tim Henman told Eurosport, although Sabalenkova eventually prevailed and won seven games in a row to decide the closely watched match of the second round.
“To tell the truth, I am amazed. Her progress is unreal, she moves very well for a sixteen-year-old girl, she has balanced shots. She will be excellent,” added another British tennis expert, Laura Robson.
When she interviewed the winner and big favorite of the tournament after the match, both had to stop at Fruhvirtová’s performance.
“For someone who is sixteen years old, she does an incredible job. When I was sixteen, I never dreamed that I would be at such a level,” declared the twenty-five-year-old Sabalenková.
“She is an incredible player and if she continues to work hard, she will be at the top very soon,” she added.
Robson then noted that Fruhvirt was born in 2007. “Which seems absolutely crazy to me,” she noted. The year of birth of her rival Sabalenkova was destroyed.
“Yeah, it’s crazy, my little sister was born in 2009,” laughed the tennis superstar.
During the match, she tried not to think about how young the tennis player was against her and how clear she was the favorite.
“I tried to think only about my game, nothing else and to fight for every ball. I just tried not to let this young lady go to the next round,” Sabalenková described with a laugh. She subsequently stated at the press conference that she noticed the physical indisposition of the Czech player during the match. “I wish her a speedy recovery,” Sabalenkova said.
While in the first round she made her 18-year-old German opponent Ella Seidel cry already during the match, when she allowed her only one game, Brenda Fruhvirtová left Melbourne’s biggest stage proudly and with a smile on her face.
She received a well-deserved standing ovation.
She became the youngest player since Nicole Vaidiš in 2005 to face either the world number one or two at the Australian Open. Vaidišová took six games from the American Lindsey Davenport in the third round. Even now, Fruhvirtová definitely did not disgrace herself.
“At my age, this is a great experience for me, which will help me in the future. But I still lost, if it had been the other way around, I probably would have been happier. Nevertheless, I look at the whole match mainly positively, you don’t choose your opponents. However, I’m a little sad , I had a good start here from the qualification. And this soon I will get last year’s defending champion,” Češka quoted Tennis world.
She said she did not lack strength, but she was really dealing with health problems, the origin of which she did not specify.
“I’ve been suffering from pain for a long time, I’m still struggling with something like that. It’s not easy for me, I can’t go into every match at one hundred percent. But I’m trying to work with it somehow. But I don’t want to make excuses for it, I don’t like it,” she added and she was happy to be able to compete with one of the best tennis players today.
“When you watch it on TV, you have no idea how they really play on the court. Although the result is not very flattering, I was able to play balanced exchanges with her. And in the first set I held my own. I hope that next time I can beat similar players, ” she concluded.
2024-01-17 12:57:31
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