“(I have) nothing but love for Chennai,” this smiling 17-year-old Czech player proclaimed afte taking out her veteran Polish opponent Magda Linette. The baking India heat didn’t cause Linda Fruhvirtova to wilt or compromise her skills as she went for it to defeat her surprised opponent in the three-set suspenseful title match.
Something told Linda that this would be the tournament that could make or break her and she decided being agressive was the answer. Will this maiden title at such a young age create issues? The Czech teen doesn’t think so.
“Since I was really young, we always had a lot of attention,” she explained concerning her and younger sister Brenda at playing tennis at many levels. “I’m kind of used to people watching how I am going to do,” Linda added.
But wants to only make her racket do the talking, and teach the tennis community that she’s not a one-title wonder. It is her sister’s mantra also to work on being consistent and not listen to others dictating how their future will be.
Brenda Fruhvirtova is making ground-breaking performances of her own, at 15-years-old with winning her fifth ITF singles title of this year and intends on continuing her trek as long as possible. Linda and Brenda know how damaging it can be to listen entirely to the media and choose to go out and perform the way they know best.
“..In tennis as soon as you lose two matches people say, ‘Oh, she’s going down’ and then you win two matches and they go ‘She’s a star’ You can’t really focus on what other people ae saying”
Linda is ovejoyed to win her first WTA title and has a career anking high of no. 130. She looks at her maiden title as well as the teen Carlos Alcaraz’ accomplishments to signal a new generation coming to professional tennis.
She also sees how winning a Grand Slam at a young age can be a lot of pressure and living up to the hype is a struggle. Linda has only been on tour for three years and many times hasn’t won even her qualifying round. She gets real and says her title win at Chennai is just the beginning.
“I would really like to be in the position where I can play the main draws of the big tournaments…Of course you want to win the Gand Slams as soon as possible…but I am just going to try my best and we will see.”
