Back at the London Eye, Krejcikova comes 'full circle'
Fraught with nerves before she faced Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon final last July, Barbora Krejcikova went for a ride. On the eve of the championship match, she took a quick trip on the London Underground and hopped on the London Eye -- the iconic Ferris wheel attraction that offers thousands of tourists a bird's eye view of famous sights including Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace -- "just to chill out a bit."
That's why coming back to the popular London tourist attraction on Saturday for the official draw ceremony of the WTA 500 HSBC Championships -- a formality she would otherwise avoid out of superstition -- was like coming "full circle."
"I usually avoid draw ceremonies like bad luck," she explained the next day in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "Partly because I’m superstitious, and partly because I don’t want to know who I’m playing until I absolutely have to. But when @QueensTennis asked me to do it inside the London Eye, I couldn’t say no.
"Why? Because last year, the night before the Wimbledon final, I was so nervous I jumped on the Tube and rode to the London Eye just to chill out a bit. And it clearly worked."
The occasion, alongside Jodie Burrage and tournament director Laura Robson, brought a smile to Krejcikova's face in the midst of a tough spell since she lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish at SW19 last year -- matching the achievement of her late mentor Jana Novota in the process.
A lingering back injury curtailed the end of Krejcikova's 2024 season -- though she reached the semifinals of the year-end WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF, picking up a win over Coco Gauff in the process -- and forced the former World No. 2 to delay her 2025 debut until late May. But back on the grass, Krejcikova is hoping to start her second half with a bang before returning to the All England Club for her title defense.
Seeded No. 7, Krejcikova will face Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova in the first round of the WTA's return to the Queen's Club.
