Lucie Safarova – A Chase to Win!

By Disha Mashelkar

Today as diligent Lucie Safarova will face world no. one Serena Williams, the whole of Paris and Tennis world is expected to witness a rush of adrenaline at the finals of French Open. This is the first time professional tennis player Luice Safarova, has reached the singles final of any Grand Slam in her career. 

Lucie Safarova after winning the semi-finals at Rolland Garros

Luice has a big fan following at Rolland Garros as well as on ‘Twitter’ (15.4k followers) and is a favourite to clinch today’s winner’s cup! She defeated Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 7-5 in the semi-finals of the French Open and expressed her joy as she fell back on the clay court. Clay court is Lucie’s preferred surface court to play.

Lucie Safarova is currently going through the best time of her career. The year 2015 has brought success to her in the form of several achievements. She won the Australian Open 2015 doubles title with her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Futher, at the Qatar Total Open, Safarova defeated former Grand Slam champion Samantha Stosur in the first round and went on to achieve her first premier title by defeating Victoria Azarenka in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. Now, in the French Open she defeated Maria Sharapova the defending champion in the fourth round of this Grand slam. Previously, in the year 2010, Madrid Open Sharapova had to accept the defeat from her.

This is not the first time Lucie Safarova is facing Serena Williams. In the year 2007, Safarova lost to Serena Williams in the round of Miami Open. Also in the Hopman Cup in 2008 she had lost to Serena.  If 33 year old Serena Williams, defeats 28 years old Lucie Safarova in the French Open final, then she will take her career total to 20 Grand Slams. Legendary Steffi Graf holds the record of 22 Grand Slam titles. Although she is suffering from flu, Serena will definitely not easily give up her chase to win the third title in Paris.  

On the personal life, Safarova was in a relationship with another talented Czech- Tomas Berdych with whom she broke up in 2011. He was the one who had defeated Roger Federer in the 2010 Wimbledon Cup’s quarter-finals. In the finals, he had lost to Rafael Nadal. Tomas Berdych later announced his engagement with model Ester Satorova in the year 2012 ahead of Australian Open.

As Serena Williams will not leave any stone unturned in this final, let’s hope that Lucie Safarova clinches her first career Grand Slam at Rolland Garros!