At 28 years old, Lucie Safarova is arguably playing the best tennis of her career. The 2015 French Open finalist is currently ranked 6th in the world, the highest she has ever been ranked in her career.
Following last year’s French Open where Safarova reached the Round of 16 for the first time at a Grand Slam since the 2007 French Open, she has made it to at least the Round of 16 in three of the next four Grand Slams.
She reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at last year’s Wimbledon where she lost to fellow Czech and eventual champion Petra Kvitova.
Safarova followed her Wimbledon performance up by reaching the Round of 16 at the U.S. Open for the first time in ten main draw appearances.
This year Safarova reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open. She lost in three sets to Serena Williams, but it was still a strong performance. On her way to the final she eliminated two-time French Open champion Maria Sharapova.
For Safarova to beat Sharapova on clay is quite the accomplishment as Sharapova has become a clay court specialist over the last five years. It was the first time since 2010 that Sharapova was unable to reach at least the semifinals at Roland Garros.
Safarova has not only started to play well in singles at Grand Slams as she ages, but also in doubles. She never made it past the third round of a doubles Grand Slam in her career prior to 2013.
In 2013-2014 though, Safarova reached four quarterfinals in eight Grand Slams. That alone is impressive considering she never made it past the third round in her career, but she wasn’t done there.
This year Safarova partnered with Bethanie Mattek-Sands to win the Australian and French Open titles. She is now halfway to the doubles calendar Slam.
On top of Safarova’s strong play at grand slams, she won her first Premier event title at Doha this year over Victoria Azarenka in straight sets. It was the 6th title of her career and first since 2013.
With all Safarova has accomplished over the last two years her largest obstacle still lies ahead of her and that is the pressure of expectations.
Wimbledon is fast approaching and Safarova is going to have to deal with high expectations for the first time in her career. So, is Lucie Safarova a pretender or contender?
I say she’s a legitimate contender for a few reasons. The first is she has had experience of dealing with the important moments before.
Just look at this year’s French Open final when Safarova was down a double break in the second set to Williams. Safarova battled back to even the set just to go down another break before she battled back again to force a tie break and to eventually win the second set.
Safarova lost the match, but didn’t back down when she was cornered by one of the greatest players in women’s tennis history.
The second reason is her playing style.
The clay fits Safarova’s game because of the high topspin that comes off her shots that accelerates the ball on the slower surface, but grass can be just as successful for her. She has the ability to attack the tennis ball and power winners past her opponents which is a nice weapon to have on the slick grass surface, especially if she starts catching her opponents off-footed.
The final reason I think she can contend for the Wimbledon title is because she is playing doubles. The more court time the better and doubles does that for Safarova. Doubles isn’t practice, but it allows Safarova to work on her ball striking and different shots from different positions on court.
Safarova has taken her time to make an impact at Grand Slams, but don’t be surprised to see her better her semifinals result from a year ago at this year’s Wimbledon.
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