WTA Madrid: Barboara Strycova loses in (mini?) comeback after 805 days
Former doubles world number one Barbora Strycova has returned to the WTA Tour after more than two years at the combined event in Madrid. In singles it was an opening defeat.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit:
Apr 25, 2023, 05:09 pm
Barbora Strycova has earned a total of a good twelve million US dollars in prize money in her career - on the one hand, there are high fees and expenses that tennis brings with it, on the other hand, sponsorship and advertising money have to be added again. In short: the 37-year-old Czech should probably never have to worry about money again for the rest of her life.
So there must be another motivating factor why the lady from Pilsen takes up the racket professionally again after a two-year tour break. Strycova had played her last game so far in singles at the Australian Open 2021, where she clearly lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 2: 6, 2: 6. Shortly thereafter she announced that she was expecting and gave birth to her son "Vincent" in the autumn.
Strycova's future remains vague
Strycova had already declared in May 2021 that she actually wanted to give up the racket, but promised to come back to the tour for a small farewell match after the baby break. Now she has made her announcement come true after a break of 805 days and played an opening game against Elisabetta Cocciaretto at the WTA Tour 1000 tournament in Madrid. Although the match against the Italian, who was 15 years younger, was lost, the result of 3:6, 6:7 (5) is quite impressive after such a long non-competitive phase.
And it will not be the West Slavic's only appearance in the Spanish metropolis, as she is also competing in the doubles competition with her former standard partner Su-Wei Hsieh from South Korea. Many colleagues still have bad memories of the team known as "Double Trouble" - Strycova was also able to climb to the top of the doubles ranking in her career.
The experienced tennis mom also wants to start at other selected tournaments in the future. However, the popular Wimbledon doubles champion did not want to reveal where and for how long she would continue her comeback.