Barbora Krejcikova, a 25-year-old Czech tagged a doubles specialist until a year ago, won the French Open, capping a topsy-turvy women’s tournament.
Krejcikova downed Russian veteran and fellow surprise finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 to become the seventh unseeded female Grand Slam singles champion.
Krejcikova, a five-time Grand Slam winner in doubles and mixed, last year won her first Grand Slam main-draw singles match and broke into the top 100 in singles for the first time. She had zero wins over top-10 players until last month.
Krejcikova, formerly coached by the late 1998 Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna, a fellow Czech, won a low-level clay tournament in Strasbourg, France, the day before the French Open began.