11.06.2021 11:21:05 | The tournament director Petra Černošková was not alone in wanting to call the Prostějov tournament Covid Open, in exaggeration. We all hoped that the MONETA Czech Open 2021 would not be played in the “Covid scenery” again. Unfortunately, the wish of hers and all others who thought that the aggressive virus would disappear from our lives did not come true. The world tennis has changed due to the pandemic and is still different than it was previously.
This is one of the reasons why selecting the player field for the MONETA Czech Open 2021 was much more difficult for the tournament management this year. However, one thing remained unchanged: a success in Paris closed the door to the Hana Region. “Everything has been influenced by the current situation. The date has been postponed and players will have to decide whether they want to extend their clay season or give priority to preparation for grassy Wimbledon. They sign up for our tournament, but there is no guarantee they will actually come. In any case, we definitely want the top domestic players to take part. I think our courts will see good quality clay players who realize that they only have a little chance to succeed on the grass,” said Petra Černošková long before the tournament.
The top seed is Pablo Andujar (ATP 68) of Spain. In 2019 he built on his native Jaume Munar’s triumph from 2018 and won MONETA Czech Open as the second Spanish champion in the history to the Prostejov tournament. Andujar won the fifth title of his career, all of them on clay. How did he do at Roland Garros this year? In the first round of the clay Grand Slam he showed a brilliant turnover against Dominic Thiem: he was losing 0:2 but eventually sent the world No. 4 home in the fifth set. He did not really care that Thiem had been a Roland Garros runner up in 2018 and 2019 and champion of the last year's US Open. Not only did not the 35-year-old Spaniard show much respect for these great records in the Grand Slam statistics, he also defeated Roger Fererer in the first match in Geneva in mid-May after a long break. Pedro Martinez (ATP 102) is another Spaniard in the tournament. He and Andujar played the doubles semifinal at Roland Garros this year in which their path to the finals was blocked by Alexander Bublik and Andrej Golubjov of Kazakhstan.
"Like every year, the MONETA Czech Open tournament has been well prepared. We have to strictly comply with the hygiene rules and measures. Let alone a larger crowd is allowed to enter the premises again," added the tournament director Petra Černošková. Like in the last year, she still believes the tournament without Covid will only be played next year.
