07.06.2018 10:09:42 | Petra Černošková had her traditional tournament director’s wish, but she knew very well it would hardly come true. “Considering that we are the largest Czech tournament, my wish is quite obvious: I would be very happy if our players stayed in the tournament as long as possible. We all know very well that matches featuring domestic players are most popular. I would appreciate a large crowd at the Centre Court and at least one Czech player in the final so that the winner’s cup stayed at home. However, looking at the draw and considering the current form of the defending champion Jiří Veselý, I know it’ll probably not come true,“ said the twentieth-time tournament director.
It was a black Wednesday for the Czech tennis since none of the Czech players advanced to the quarter finals. Jiří Veselý will not defend his last year’s title at Czech Open, the fifth seeded player was knocked out by Elias Ymer of Sweden. The wildcard holder Václav Šafránek lost the match against Gerald Melzer of Austria in which he only won one game. Zdeněk Kolář also had no chance against the qualifier Federico Gaio of Italy, especially in the second set. And Pavlásek? He was two points away from the next round when he was leading 5:3 and 30:15 in the third set! “I’ve turned around many matches I could’ve easily lost recently. The karma came back to me here,“ said Pavlásek after the almost three-hour battle
End of the tournament without Czechs? “We have to get used to it. The era of Štěpánek and Hájek is gone. The latter had to quit for his health problems and Hájek ended his career in 2015. Each of them won our tournament three times. The draw was not easy for our players. However, I still believed they would succeed at home and that the crowd would push them forward. We, the organisers, did our best. MONETA can been seen everywhere in the tennis facility and that’s all we can do. The rest is up to the players. They have the success of the tournament in their hands. Unfortunately, all of them were knocked out in the second round which is rather sad. We just have to get used to no Czechs in top tennis,“ said Petra Černošková.
