Champions Corner: Siniakova, Krejcikova reflect on 'unreal' season after Madrid win

Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova captured their seventh team title at the Mutua Madrid Open, defeating the first-time pairing of Gabriela Dabrowski and Demi Schuurs, 6-4, 6-3 to win their biggest title since 2018 Wimbledon. 

Match Report: Krejcikova, Siniakova win second title of the year in Madrid

The win was the second title of the season for the Czech duo, who also finished as runner-ups at the Australian Open. On Monday they will overtake the Japanese team of Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara to sit at No.1 on the Porsche Race to Shenzhen Leaderboard. 

Krejcikova and Siniakova spoke with WTA Insider after their title run in Madrid to reflect on their successful week and explain their all-surface prowess. And Krejcikova takes a moment to reflect on her incredible season across all disciplines. In addition to her doubles success, she paired up with Rajeev Ram to win the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open, and is now in the Top 40 in singles after making the biggest final of her career at the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February. 

WTA Insider: What was the key to your win this week?
Siniakova: I mean, I think we played all matches really great. We played aggressively. We were just playing well. This final was a little bit tricky because it was windy and it was center court. It was different. But I think we were just trying to stay focused on every point, and we were very good as a team. 

WTA Insider: You're both familiar with Dabrowski and Schuurs but this was the first time you've faced them as a team. Did that make things trickier?
Siniakova: Of course, they're really good doubles players. So we were expecting them to go quickly to the net and try to cross. So we were expecting a doubles match, really crossing and volleying a lot. So the beginning was was a little bit strange because we were losing serves. But I think we fought hard and found a little bit of the rhythm better than them. We were trying to be the first one who gets to be in the offense. I think we did a pretty good job.

Krejcikova: I want to say that I'm really happy for them. They played the first time together and they did the finals of a WTA 1000, which is for me amazing because it's always tough to actually connect well with somebody else. So I think that's amazing results for them. 

WTA Insider: Before today, all your WTA Tour doubles titles as a team came on hardcourts. But you won your two Slam titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. You had not made it past the quarterfinals in Madrid before. What was different this year?
Siniakova: Because we didn't really play so many Madrid and Rome tournaments because me, I was in the qualies, or Bara decided to play a different tournament in singles. When we were playing, we didn't really play well. 

But I think the surface doesn't bother us. I think we're trying to focus on our game and to play a really good doubles game. And I think we actually can do a really good game on the clay because Bara is playing a really heavy spin forehand and it's working on clay. So we're just happy we have another title on a different surface.  

Krejcikova: Maybe the grass is the most tricky one because for me, I feel like I don't really have that much experience on it. But when we played juniors, we played a lot of matches and we were doing quite well. So when you have the junior Slams - we won the French, we won the Wimbledon, we won the US Open - we actually won on all three surfaces.

WTA Insider: Barbora you're in the midst of a phenomenal season, making the Dubai final in singles and now a WTA 1000 title in doubles. 
Krejcikova: It still feels pretty unreal. That's the first thing. It's not written anywhere that you're going to be like this all the time, that you're going to be Top 40 in singles and you're going to be winning the titles in doubles and stuff like this. 

Even if I'm going to go higher, I'm going to be saying the same thing, that it's unreal that it's actually happening. A girl from a little city in Czech Republic where we have six courts. The biggest player that actually came up was playing Czech Championships under-18s and lost first or second round. Right now everybody in my city, they're just really, really happy, especially my coach. 

My very, very first coach is a court attendant. He is maintaining the courts, he's doing the clay and he is cutting the grass, stuff like this, and then also he's playing tennis. He was my very first coach and he's 80 right now and he is such a big sportsman. He cycles 1,000 kilometers each year, which is pretty amazing. During the winter, he does cross-country skiing. He's an amazing guy. I love him.

When I was little, I came with my mom and she was really watching tennis. She had her TV in the kitchen and she was watching it all the time. There was Justine Henin playing, Amelie Mauresmo, Serena Williams and Venus and all of these girls. 

She actually came up to him and said it would be really nice if Barbora can be one time playing the same level as Serena. He was like, well, you know, it's a really, really long way to actually get there. He knew, but my mom was so excited. 

Right now, you know, I'm not at the same level. I'm very, very far away from what all these ladies have achieved. But still, I'm at the same tournaments. I'm going to the same locker room. I really admire all of them. It's amazing. I'm going to have so many good memories for my next chapter of life as well, for my kids and for everything. 

So I just really appreciate it. I just really try to stay humble and work every single day and just try to improve as a tennis player and as a person.  

WTA Insider: The city you're talking about is Brno? 
Krejcikova: No, it's Ivančice. It's where I actually lived. It wasn't really a fancy place. We had one tennis wall, which was the wall that I was really playing a lot on. There was also one asphalt court with one broken net. 

When I come back home, I just love to visit the place and talk with my coach. I don't even go and play there because I practice in Brno, but I go and it's in the nature and it's always very calm there. I'm watching a lot of other people, other recreational people that are playing. I'm just really enjoying it. 

Sometimes when I get a trophy, especially a Grand Slam trophy, I came with it and I was just showing everyone and they all just wanted to take a picture and congratulate me. 

It was such a nice moment. It's what my mom was dreaming about and my coach saying, OK, you know, it's very far away. And it's actually standing right there. It was sitting on a bench and I had it, I was just lifting it. 

So a lot of emotions. It's really hard for me to explain and show because all of this is just pretty much behind the scenes. Everything is just with me because nobody else was actually there. So now this is pretty much the first time I'm actually telling someone this.  

WTA Insider: Has your finalist trophy from Dubai made its way to Ivančice yet? 
Krejcikova: I usually only bring Grand Slam trophies but I will make an exception for Dubai. 

I just really appreciate every trophy that I can get. When I get to the finals, I'm already happy because I'm going to get a trophy. I mean, I want to win and I want to get the bigger one, but on the other hand, OK, if I'm going to lose at least I'm going to get some kind of trophy. So in 20 or 30 years from now, I'm just going to see, oh yeah, that was the year when I played, I had this trophy, I like it, blah, blah blah. 

I really like the trophies because it's reminding me of the place and of the memories that I'm actually having.