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At 7-8, 30-40 in the decider of her semi-final
against Maria Sakkari, the Greek hit a forehand that was called
long by the line judge, only for the chair umpire to check the
mark and call it in.
With the contest swinging wildly from one player to another, the
momentum could have tilted back Sakkari's way.
TV replays showed that the ball was actually out and Krejcikova,
who is bidding to become the first Czech woman to win the title
at Roland Garros since Hana Mandlikova in 1981, then saw off a
game point before wrapping it up on her next, and fifth, match
point for a 7-5 4-6 9-7 victory.
She could easily have lost her composure after the umpire's
decision to rule the ball in, but Krejcikova barely protested.
While players at the other three Grand Slams can challenge line
calls by using Hawk Eye, with some slams relying on the system
to make all line calls, Roland Garros organisers have adamantly
refused to introduce the ball-tracking technology at the
claycourt major.
Their argument has always been that umpires can easily spot the
dent left by the balls to decide close calls. On Thursday,
however, that could have cost Krejcikova a place in the final.
"No Hawk-Eye on clay, it's difficult. I mean, sometimes it's a
help, sometimes it doesn't. I don't know. It's very difficult,"
said world number 33 Krejcikova.
"At that moment I was just like, 'Well, it's out, but what can
you do?' The chair umpire, he has seen it as in. What can I do?
I cannot do anything about it. I cannot call anyone, change his
decision.
"I was like... it's fine. Doesn't matter. Just let's go."
Krejcikova, who will face Russian 31st seed Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday, six years after fellow Czech Lucie
Safarova reached the final, quickly recovered her focus.
"You just have to put everything together and just keep working,
next one, next one, next one," she explained.
The 25-year-old was also at a point where she felt simply being
on court in such a match was enough and said she would have been
proud of herself even if she had lost.
"I always wanted to play matches like this. I always wanted to
play tournaments like this, big tournaments, big opponents, last
rounds. It was always something that I wanted to achieve. It was
just taking so long," she said.
"It just took me some time, but I think right now it's actually
the right moment. Especially mentally I think I'm just there. I
really matured. I just really appreciate things a lot,
especially after what I've gone through, also with this pandemic
and everything."
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)
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