At first glance, the transition from Tereza Valentova of a junior career outside competition at the WTA hological tour seems transparent. The Roland Garros 2024 girl champion barely 14 months ago, Valentova scored a stage victory on home at the Livesport Prague Open on Wednesday, overwhelming the head No. 2 Rebecca Sramkova 7-6 (1), 7-5 after saving two adjustment points in the opening.
Prague: scores | Drawing | Game order
The result is her first victory in the top 50 and that puts it in her first quarter-final level of touring, extending her 2025 record at all levels at 38-8. Valentova, 18, started the year by winning the ITF W75 in Porto, but when it increased the levels, its victories rate only increased.
Over the past two months, she qualified and did the second round to Roland Garros during her beginnings to the Grand Slam, falling 6-2, 6-4 against the possible Coco Gauff champion. Valentova followed this by collecting its first two titles WTA 125, in Grado (on Clay) and, last week, in Porto (on short hard).
Valentova is now on a sequence of seven consecutive victories and has the possibility of extending it more when it will face the lucky part of Jessika Ponchet in the quarter -finals on Thursday. The victory in this match would guarantee its first first beginnings next week.
Behind the scenes, Valentova had to sail in several tribulations which, according to her, only made it stronger – injuries, coach problems and baptisms of fire on the big stage. Get to know his story here:
“I didn’t watch them even once – I was really proud of me for that”
During the beginnings at the Valentova tour in May, she made the most difficult tasks of tennis, a Roland Garros match against a home player in the cauldron of an outdoor court. She faced Chloe Paquet and a noisy French crowd to win what she describes as “one of the most mental matches I have ever played”, coming from 5-2 in the third set to win 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
“I learned that I can play against myself, against her and against a really, really tall crowd at the same time,” said Valentova in an interview with Wtatennis.com. “I expected that she had a lot of people who encourage himself, but I did not expect that. There were guys from a football team and they sang everything. When I went for the towel, a guy shouted on me half a meter distance.
“I didn’t watch them, not even once. I was really proud of me for that.”
In Wimbledon qualifying a month later, Valentova had to rely on the same home during a 3-6 6-4, 6-3 victory in the second round on Lucrezia Stefanini during which the Italian supporters reached the volume over the match.
“I got angry-in a healthy way,” she told the Czech press. “To her, and to her team. I had the impression that there were moments that were not completely useless. I had to calm down and get started correctly. The balls started to land, I calmed down and I started playing better.”
This time last year, Valentova did not know if she would play tennis again
The breakthrough of Valentova has undoubtedly been delayed by one year. During the first six months of 2024, she compiled a 30-2 file in ITF tournaments, including five titles, as well as winning Roland Garros Juniors. She was looking forward to bringing her momentum in her early WTA shooting in Prague last year – only for strike injury. A fracture of stress in the hip of Valentova would skyrocket it for three months.
“It was pretty bad and I didn’t know if I would play tennis again,” she said.
Worse than injury, however, was the way those around it. The diagnosis was slow and the doctors of Valentova blamed his former physical trainer and coach for uncertainty. But a year, she feels that she is in a better place throughout the experience.
She knows her body better and knows what are the warning signs: “Next time, it will not become so bad,” she said. His unexpected free time meant that his school notes improved, in particular because of his increased interest in his favorite material, anatomy and biology.
“Quite close to my heart,” said Valentova jokingly.
She also reconfigured her team. The problems had not only been linked to the injuries – his former coach had been a hard workman, and despite his junior success, Valento was not really happy.
“I was crying a lot in tournaments and it was quite difficult,” she said. “It was bad for my mental side.”
The new Libor Salaba coach, with whom Valentova has been working for five months, has shown him that she can improve his tennis in a more positive atmosphere.
“Now I can relax in court,” she said. “He taught me good things and he is really nice – I’m glad he has this personality.”
Valentova converted different experiences of the Grand Slam to WTA 125 titles
After Roland Garros, Valentova was at the top. Although she fell in Gauff, that she had never seen that before on television, to play the world No. 2 in the Suzanne-Lenglen court was a “life experience” for her, and she had not felt surpassing.
“It showed me that I could play with the best players, because I don’t think I have played my best and that I continued with her,” said Valentova. “Lots of experience that I can adopt maybe another meeting with her.”
She intended to go directly to the grass after that, having obtained a last-minute joker for “S-Hértogenbosch-only to find, while making packaging for a flight to the Netherlands the next day, that she had entered the WTA 125 simultaneous in Grado a few weeks before, and forgotten to withdraw. Valentova had to cancel the joker and, with her, her chances of playing on the grass before Wimbledon – but she compensated in style while sweeping the title Grado.
“In the first game, I was not even nervous, because I was really confident in me,” said Valentova. “It was the first time that it happened to me.”
Three weeks later, Valentova emerged from its beginnings in Wimbledon in a very different state of mind. She had not managed to qualify for the draw in the most heartbreaking way, losing an advance from 5-1 to third set and down 7-6 (1), 2-6, 7-6[7] to Anastasia Zakharova. “The pain is indescribable,” she told the Czech press that week.
“I cried a lot for several days,” recalls Valentova after his first round victory in Prague. “It was really difficult for me mentally.”
What she needed after that was a hard reset to empty her head. She found it in Porto, where she organized a dominant race for another WTA 125 title, conceding only 23 games and no set in five games. The loss of Wimbledon was shaken, and even a canceled flight which did not mean that it only landed in Prague on Monday affected it.
Valentova showed his competitive spirit at an early age
Some of Valentova’s first childhood memories are to watch his father, Marcel Valenta – a passionate tennis player who competed at European level – training on the tennis courts near their home in Prague. At three years old, Valentova wanted nothing more than to join him – but not only to get in court.
“I wanted to beat him!” She said. “I was trying to train every time with him.”
It took more than a decade, but Valentova managed to win a victory over Marcel a few years ago – and she does not give up her satisfaction with the result.
“He has excuses,” she said with disdain. “I said to him,” Why do you have any apologies? “”
It was not the only sport that the young Tereza tried – she also played basketball for three years, as well as gymnastics and horse riding. His mother, Jitka Janackova, was a Sprint canoeist who participated in the Olympic Games twice, in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, and tried to direct the young Tereza in the water after noticing his unusual ability.
“When you do the canoe the first time, you will fall into the water,” said Valentova. “Each time. But I didn’t do it, and she was impressed enough.”
But in vain. Tennis was the first love of Valentova, and he has remained to date.
“It’s in my heart,” she said with a smile.
