Barbora Krejcikova wins a maiden Grand Slam title by defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in French Open final

The unseeded Barbora Krejcikova defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 to lift her first singles Grand Slam trophy on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The former doubles world No 1 was making just her fifth appearance in a Grand Slam singles draw and will have the opportunity to add the women’s doubles title to her collection on Sunday.

If Krejcikova is able to complete the double she would become the first female in 21 years to win the singles and doubles trophy at the French Open.

Following the victory the Czech Republican was quick to remember her late-mentor Jana Novotna who died from cancer in November 2017.

Krejcikova said: ‘I was going through a really hard time when Jana passed away, I was with her most of the time. Her last words were pretty much “just enjoy it and try to win a Grand Slam”.

‘I know from somewhere she is looking after me and all this what happened in the last two weeks is pretty much because she is looking after me from up there.

‘It is amazing I had the chance to meet her and she was an inspiration. I hope she is really happy.

‘I’m super happy I was able to enjoy it and it is hard to put into words because I cannot believe what just happened, I cannot believe I actually won a Grand Slam.’

Barbora Krejcikova calms the nerves

The world No 33 started nervously and dropped her serve in the opening game of the match to allow the world No 32 Pavlyuchenkova, who was also taking part in her first Grand Slam final, to pull ahead.

However, the loss of the opening service game seemed to settle Krejcikova down as she broke straight back to begin a winning streak of six games and take the opening set in 31 minutes.

Typical of the tournament so far, Pavlyuchenkova fought back with might saving a break point in the first game of the second set before managing to break her opponents serve and take an early lead.

The Russian was rarely troubled on her serve in the second set and managed to break Krejcikova’s serve once again to take a 5-1 lead.

Yet, Krejcikova refused to give in saving a set point before halving the deficit but then failed to hold her serve once again to force a decider.

The pair traded a break of serve at the start of the third set but the Czech Republican was able to find the crucial service break at 3-3.

At the fourth attempt Krejcikova was able to convert a match point and seal the victory in one hour and 56 minutes.