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Barbora Krejcikova, the reigning French Open singles and doubles champion, will not be defending either of her titles during this year’s event. The world’s No. 2 player lost in the first round of singles action on Monday to French teenager Diane Parry, and had to withdraw from doubles on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19.
The 26-year-old made the announcement about her illness in a post on her Instagram story.
“I was looking forward to competing in doubles very much but unfortunately my time here at (Roland Garros) got cut short,” Krejcikova wrote. “Last night I started to feel bad and this morning I woke up with (a) fever. I decided to get tested for COVID and it came back positive. I am extremely sad that I won’t be able to defend my title in doubles here, but on the positive side, I am glad I am injury free and can’t wait to get healthy and back to training.”
Krejcikova and her partner Katerina Siniakova, the tournament’s top-seeded pair, had been scheduled to open play on Thursday against Anna Kalinskaya and Dalma Galfi.
It’s been a tough stretch for Krejcikova, who had stunned the tennis world with her Cinderella run at Roland Garros in 2021 as an unseeded player largely-known as a doubles specialist. She had been sidelined from competition for three months following February’s Qatar Open with an elbow injury, and was unable to play in any of the lead-in events on clay for the French Open. She was tearful in her post-loss news conference on Monday.
“You know, I just think I just collapsed physically,” she said.
Krejcikova was the second Czech player to test positive for the virus this week. Marie Bouzkova had to withdraw from both singles and doubles on Tuesday following a positive test. She had won her first-round singles match against Anastasia Gasanova on Sunday.