Five facts about the All England club's latest champion

Legoland to dreamland

When Barbora Krejcikova is not playing tennis, she is building Lego models. In her repertoire are the Milky Way, and Dobby, a character from the world of Harry Potter.

"I have many of them actually. Yeah, I even received some from my team here," she said. She hopes one day to put together a Lego version of Wimbledon Centre Court. "If there's one of me, I'll do that," she said.

Helping hands

Krejcikova sacked coach Ales Kartus, who helped her to the 2021 French Open title, in July last year. Since then, she has not had a full-time coach, but is working with Pavel Motl, who is two years younger, at 26.

They went to the same school and occasionally trained together.

Recalling how they first met, Motl told the iDNES.cz news website: "Bara was 10 and she played in the village where I live. She was playing on court No 3 and beat our adult neighbor 6-0,6-0."

Motl refuses to call himself a coach.

"I don't know whether I will ever call myself a coach. For me, it's a kind of a lifetime journey."

Family life

At Wimbledon, Krejcikova shuns life in official hotels, preferring instead to stay with a local family, as she has done for the past decade.

Krejcikova has often spoken of the "relaxed atmosphere" at the house, where her late coach Jana Novotna used to stay, too.

The 31st seed paid an emotional tribute to Novotna, who also hails from her hometown of Brno, in an on-court interview after her semifinal win.

Novotna, who won Wimbledon in 1998, died from cancer in 2017 at the age of 49. "I remember thinking about her a lot," said Krejcikova. "I have so many beautiful memories, and when I step on the court I fight for every single ball, as that is what she would want me to do."

School's out

Krejcikova admits she was committed to reaching junior finals, as it often meant a day off from school.

"I always liked playing the finals at minor tournaments, because we played on Mondays and I didn't have to go to school. That was my goal for the weekend," she said.

Olympic dream

Krejcikova is due to team up with Katerina Siniakova for the Paris Olympics, as the pair seek to defend their doubles title from Tokyo. The two split last November after winning seven Grand Slam titles together.

The split was initiated by Siniakova, who decided to team up with Storm Hunter, but the Australian picked up an Achilles tendon injury in April, meaning a spell on the sidelines.

Siniakova won the French Open women's doubles with Coco Gauff last month and has reached this year's Wimbledon final with Taylor Townsend. Krejcikova teamed up with Laura Siegemund for the women's doubles at Wimbledon, but they were knocked out in the quarterfinals.

AFP