Mumbai: A part of the US Open locker room paused as the spectacle peaked at Louis Armstrong Stadium. A group of players, including world No.4 Taylor Fritz, chose being glued to the TV screen over loosening up their bodies. Each of them knows what it is like to be in match point territory, where one point defines whether you can go on in the tournament or go out. That’s when the play often gets tight and the mind freezes to safety-first approach. They’ve all been there. They’ve all done that.
Barbora Krejcikova was there, eight times over. What she did, though, was unshackle her day’s most brave and audacious tennis on each of those eight points of no return.
The result: from being down 1-6, 4-5, 30-40 in the match and 3-6, 4-6, 5-6, 6-7, 10-11, 11-12 and 12-13 in the second set tiebreaker, the Czech completed a remarkable and riveting turnaround to beat American Taylor Townsend 1-6, 7-6(15-13), 6-3 and enter the US Open quarter-finals.
As per OptaAce, the eight match points saved were the joint most in a women’s singles win in Slams over the last three seasons.
Many ingredients elevated the drama that this three-hour, eight-match point platter served up. There was that rollercoaster second set tiebreak, involving seven match points and four set points, that went on for almost as long as the 28-minute first set. There was the packed Armstrong crowd which, save for one man staunchly yelling away in support of the Czech, collectively cranked up the decibel level in backing one of their own.
Yet what made it truly rich was the free-flowing fearlessness dished out by the two-time singles Slam champion in the most high-pressure moments of the encounter. Of the eight match points that Krejcikova saved, five were outright winners and two drew out forced errors, with just one reprieve coming from a Townsend unforced error.
This wasn’t about Townsend squandering chances, this was about Krejcikova seizing the initiative.
On the first match point, with Krejcikova serving at 4-5, 30-40, a 101mph first strike was followed by an inside-in forehand winner. On the second (Krejcikova serving at 3-6 in the tiebreak), a chipped return was this time met with an inside-out forehand winner. On the third (Krejcikova serving at 4-6), an attacking forehand approach shot got Townsend to net an attempted passing shot. On the fourth (Townsend serving at 6-5), a deep backhand return from Krejcikova put Townsend on the backfoot and, two hits later, extracted an unforced error.
On the fifth (Krejcikova serving at 6-7), the spectacle hit its crescendo when Krejcikova’s brilliant backhand down the line barely brushed the outside of the baseline. The crowd roared in unison and quickly collapsed to silence. Kids that came rushing down the stairs in autograph-hoping zest had to be stopped in their tracks.
It wasn’t over yet. Far from it.
On the sixth match point (Krejcikova serving at 10-11), a loopy backhand slice from Townsend was met with a backhand volley from Krejcikova from nearly outside the singles sideline and turned into a winner. On the seventh (Townsend serving at 12-11), a second serve was dispatched for an inside-out forehand winner. On the eighth (Krejcikova serving at 12-13), a smart serve had Townsend chip a forehand return long.
Krejcikova herself saw three set points come and go before slam-dunking an overhead to close the tiebreak and leap into the decider.
While Krejcikova took a long bathroom break, Townsend sat by herself for long at the changeover.
“I let myself scream (from) inside, ‘like, oh my god. Dammit’,” Townsend said later.
As the Czech rode the momentum in the third set and completed the turnaround, she climbed up to her box. Townsend slumped to her chair in tears. That wild tiebreak and those eight match points stung, as she put it.
“She just played more free in those moments,” the current doubles world No.1 said of her fellow former doubles No.1.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Krejcikova, the 2024 Wimbledon winner, of that assessment. “In all those match points, definitely I was brave, yes, but also lucky.”
Lucky that a few kissed the line, sure. But Krejcikova was indeed brave in hunting for them and going for the kill in each of those eight points where one misfire would have been game over.
