Palicová: A very emotional and special victory

She finally did it! In her fourth appearance in the Livesport Prague Open main draw, Barbora Palicová claimed her first victory, defeating experienced Priscilla Hon in the opening round 6–2, 3–6, 6–3. After converting match point, an emotional Palicová dropped to her knees, savoring one of the sweetest moments of her career so far.

"It was a very emotional and special win because it’s my first time winning a round in the main draw of a WTA 250,” said an enthusiastic Barbora Palicová, “I worked hard and fought until the end. Playing on Czech soil is the best – it fired me up. And it’s nice that so many people turned up.”

Until now, the 21-year-old had been eliminated in the first round of the Liveposrt Prague Open main draw three times in a row. Now, at the tournament hosted by her home club in her native Czechia, she finally broke that streak.

"I always tell myself I’ll fight as much as I can. The main thing is not to lose my head, to keep saying ‘come on, come on’ and keep pushing. I think having a positive mindset is the most important aspect of the game," she revealed.

Up next for Palicová is Jessika Ponchet, the lucky loser of qualifying. "I’ve got nothing to lose. I can go into the match completely relaxed. I’ll try to show my best tennis and give it my all," said Palicová, “but now I’ll have a good lunch and most importantly, I’ll rest because tomorrow I’ll need to focus again.”

Somewhat unusually, the Czech player is now competing on her third different surface in less than a month. After grass-court qualifying at Wimbledon, she played a clay-court WTA 125 in Rome and is now battling on the Livesport Prague Open hard courts.

"I’m not a huge fan of switching surfaces,” she said openly, “but I only found out I’d be playing here quite last minute and had just around two days to prepare. I was originally supposed to be at a clay tournament in Palermo, but things changed.”

“Maybe it’s better this way — I didn’t have time to overthink anything, I just grabbed my gear and turned up ready to play," concluded Palicová.

Photo: Livesport Prague Open / Pavel Lebeda (sport-pics.cz)

Author: eSports

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