The current Roland Garros never made it to the list of Russian champions at Grand Slam tournaments.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reached the final of the women's singles tournament, but lost in it to Barbora Kreichikova from the Czech Republic.

The game ended with a score of 6: 1, 2: 6, 6: 4 in her favor.

For Pavlyuchenkova, this title match was a very long-awaited event. As a junior, she reached the final of Roland Garros and won it in doubles. Ten years ago, on clay courts in Paris, she reached the quarterfinals of an adult tournament for the first time. But Pavlyuchenkova did not manage to go beyond this stage at the majors all her career. As a result, she managed to get to the final only from the 52nd attempt - no other girl in the Open Era had to go so long and stubbornly towards this goal.

Pavlyuchenkova's path looks especially thorny against the background of Kreichikova.

She ended up in the final already at her fifth Grand Slam tournament, in which she reached the main draw.

However, for most of her career, the Czech woman did not strive for this.

The 25-year-old athlete has long made a name for herself in doubles tennis - she was the first racket in the world and even won the Roland Garros.

It was difficult to imagine Kreichikova's success in singles a year ago, since she was not even included in the first hundred of the WTA rating.

But in the fall she reached the fourth round of Roland Garros, and this event can be considered the point of reference for her rebooted career.

Since then, the Czech has managed to reach the final of the Premiere in Dubai and win the clay tournament in Stuttgart.

Before arriving in Paris, she climbed to 33rd place in the ranking - just one below her future rival in the final.

The first meeting between Pavlyuchenkova and Kreichikova began extremely unsuccessfully for the Czech. She immediately made two double mistakes, thanks to which the Russian woman took the lead with a break. But at the reception Kreichikov turned out to be much more successful and immediately began to demonstrate active tennis with an error-free play on the back line and bold exits to the net. As soon as Pavlyuchenkova gave slack, the opponent immediately chalked up the game at her own expense.

The Russian woman did not manage to regain the initiative back. Her serve did not pose any danger to the Czech woman, who won three quarters of all the first goals on reception. Although there were not very many gross mistakes on the part of Pavlyuchenkova, Kreichikova completely outplayed her rival. She did not have a difficult semi-final with Maria Sakkari behind her, in which the third set stretched for 16 games, and the doubles tournament passed to the final. The Czech won five more games, sometimes spending less than three minutes on them, and ended the first game in her favor.

Pavlyuchenkov was not upset by such a discouraging beginning of the final. On the contrary, she went to the second set with the clear intention of saving the match. Her strokes and shortened strokes came as a surprise to Kreichikova, who suddenly lost her confidence in the reception. In the first two games, the Russian woman won six points with active rallies, despite the fact that for the entire previous set she had only seven of them. She not only interrupted her opponent's six-game streak, but also took the lead with a break.

After the exchange of serve, Pavlyuchenkova made another leap and, in a bitter struggle, won the key sixth game, after which she got a chance to serve for the set.

The Russian woman earned a set point, but when trying to implement it, she suddenly pulled a muscle.

It didn't work out in her favor, and she had to take a medical time-out.

After returning to court, Pavlyuchenkova began to play more accurately, but thanks to Kreichikova's mistakes, the score in the parties nevertheless became equal.

The break helped the Russian woman to recover, and the Czech woman's position only worsened.

In the first game, she made three unforced mistakes, backed up by Pavlyuchenkova's first ace.

But it was too early to draw any conclusions from this failure alone.

Kreichikova won the next two games, and she realized the break point due to a double mistake, but after Pavlyuchenkova made a reverse break.

In the seventh game, the swing again swayed towards the Czech tennis player.

She took the opponent's serve to zero, winning the eighth point in a row.

Kreichikova began to show flawless tennis, literally knocking out Pavlyuchenkova with accurate punches along the corridors.

Soon she took a 5-3 lead and earned a double championship ball, but the public's reaction to such a crazy turn of events seemed to knock the tennis player off.

Pavlyuchenkova's nerves turned out to be strong, and she won four points in a row.

But Kreichikova continued to lead with a break, and that was enough for her.

She held the serve and won the Roland Garros.

Next week, the Czech woman will make her debut in the top 15 of the WTA rankings, and on Sunday she will be able to win another title paired with Katezhina Sinyakova.

Pavlyuchenkova, thanks to reaching the final, will become the 18th racket in the world.

First Slam Feels 🙌 @ BKrejcikova captures her maiden major singles title, defeating Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. # RolandGarrospic.twitter.com / Moql4x4XFD

- Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 12, 2021