2024-03-31 19:31:37
She is accompanied by the reputation of a huge talent, a star of the future. Linda Fruhvirtová, together with her sister Brenda, who is two years younger, is a tennis player with enormous potential. But the first named is faltering this year and falling down the rankings. The last time she did not manage to win two matches in a row even at the Mexican tournament with a subsidy of 115 thousand dollars. And the media there registered it.
Two years ago, the older of the Fruhvirt sisters worked as a revelation on the circuit. She received wild cards for big events, adult opponents often did not know how to deal with her.
She thus played in the round of 16 in Miami, won her first WTA title in Chennai and the following year she also made it to the last sixteen at the Australian Open. She thus climbed into the top 50 of the world rankings.
But then, as if the machine had stalled, a collision with reality came and the Czech started to fall down the rankings, at the end of last year she was already at the end of the top 100.
Nevertheless, father Hynek Fruhvirt did not panic in an interview with the newspaper Aktuálně.cz before Christmas.
“It was a tough season. Harder than the last one. It was Linda’s third year on the circuit. Her rivals were more and more ready for her. When I evaluate it overall, we can’t be dissatisfied, Linda finished at the end of the ranking plus minus the same as she started . We’ll see what the next season brings,” said Fruhvirt.
But it’s not glory yet. Since the beginning of the year, his older daughter has won just seven matches and lost 12 of them. So the points are decreasing, he is currently in the 138th place in the ranking. That means making your way into Grand Slams through qualifiers.
Even Mexican journalists at the press conference of the tournament in San Luis Potosi were interested in her ranking drop. “It’s one thing to get into the top 50 and another thing is to stay in it. It’s a chance to improve, I’ll get there again,” said Fruhvirtová determinedly
In recent seasons, her team has been testing new coaches a lot. For example, they tried the Dutch legend Sven Groeneveld, and at the beginning of the year, the Chilean coach and former player Nicolas Massu patrolled the Fruhvirts’ coaching box.
“The good thing about tennis is that every week you have a new opportunity to make a better result, and I’m always motivated to win and move on. I’m competitive, I want to know what I can do,” she chokes.
She denies that she feels the pressure that, with the label of a great talent, she does not meet the expectations of the public and experts.
“Actually, I’m used to that pressure since childhood, when a lot of attention was focused on my sister and me. But to be honest, I never paid attention to it, I never cared what others said,” she added.
But for now, she is waiting for the helm of her performances to turn to the positive side. In Mexico this week, she was eliminated in the second round, when she even got a canary from Suzanne Lamensová, currently ranked 156 in the world.