Champions of 2011: Lucie Hradecka/ Andrea Hlavackova - French Open Women’s Doubles
Lucie Hradecka was born on May 21st, 1985 in Prague, Czech Republic. She started playing tennis at a young age of four when her father (Karel) and elder sister (Petra) took her to local courts. In 2002 she played her
initial events on the ITF circuit and by 2003 she had won two ITF titles. Hradecka touched the lime light when she achieved her foremost doubles title on the WTA tour at Portoroz in Slovenia with partner Renata Voracova as the fourth seeded team in 2006.
Albeit, Hradecka had a successful doubles career prior to her pairing with Andrea Hlavackova, after her partnership together they embarked on a journey of success.
Andrea Hlavackova was born to a Czech family on August 10th, 1986, a year after Hradecka and she entered the lime light after she won her first WTA doubles title with Petra Cetkovska in 2007. Overall, she has won 15
ITF doubles titles and 3 ITF singles title. Although, she hasn’t won any WTA singles titles, she had managed to achieve 5 WTA doubles titles.
The two were doubles specialists and decided to begin their partnership in 2008 with style. Together the two won their first nine matches and also bagged two titles along the way; one at the Prague Open in Czech Republic, their
home country and the other in Bad Gastein in Austria. In 2009 they defended their Bad Gastein title by ousting Tatjana Malek with Andrea Petkovic and in 2010 added the Brisbane title to their title haul by defeating Melinda Czink with Arantxa Parra Santonja.
Their best performance in 2011 had been a dash to the final at Memphis where they were runners-up until an unforgettable fortnight at Roland Garros. Hlavackova and Hradecka were the least recognizable Czechs in the French Open
draw, as their countrywomen Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova had paired and entered the event with a WTA-leading three titles together in 2011. Although, the two had never been beyond the round of 16 in their nine previous majors, together they
proved to be an unstoppable force at the French Open and squared off with their eighth-seeded countrywomen in the first round.
During the second round they got the better of Alla Kudryavtseva with Jasmin Woher to land into the third round where they defeated Alexandra Dulgheru with Magdalena Rybarikova. In addition, more impressive victories followed and
during the quarterfinal the Czech duo flabbergasted the second seeded couple Kveta Peschke with Katarina Srebotnik. The semis saw a victory over the then number 3 seeds Vania King with Yaroslava Shvedova, who had never previously lost a Grand Slam match together.
The clash for the title took place with the seventh seeded pair of Sania Mirza besides Elena Vesnina. Hradecka and Hlavackova conquered their adversaries in straight sets of 6-4, 6-3 and took home the accolade.
After winning the French Open Hradecka said, "A Grand Slam title is a great, great thing, not a lot of people have it and so it's something special".
Mean while, Hlavackova said, “It’s great. It's something I will remember and everybody will remember. I wouldn't exchange it for anything".
Together both of them became the first unseeded French Open Champions since 1977 and the first Czech team to win a women's doubles Grand Slam since Jana Novotna beside Helena Sukova at Wimbledon in 1990.
Moreover, Hradecka has five titles with other partners, four of which have come in conjunction with Renata Voracova, while, Hlavackova has three more titles to her name with three different partners.
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