BENGALURU: Brenda Fruhvirtova may just be 15 but she is already creating ripples in the world of tennis. In January, the Czech youngster made the main draw of the Australian Open, the fifth-youngest player in history to make the main draw of a Grand Slam, and the first player born in 2007. In the first round match, she put up a brave fight against World No 38 Aliaksandra Sasnovich, taking the first set to 7-5, before losing the second 6-2.
Before that, she went on a remarkable winning spree in 2022, lifting five straight ITF titles and going unbeaten for 27 straight matches. The run propelled her to 163rd in the rankings — at one point, she was in the top 130 — and into a broader consciousness. For somebody who is just fifteen months into her professional career, that is quite the rise. Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli even went as far as saying that Brenda and her 17-year-old sister Linda — already World No 53 — could be the future of tennis.
Brenda is now in Bengaluru to play the KPB Trust ITF Women's Open and her rapid rise in stature means that despite being the youngest in the draw, she is the top seed. Ever since her Australian Open qualification, she has gone from being an unknown to being the woman to beat in ITF tournaments. But Brenda is confident that she is up to the task. "I think it is more of an advantage for me than the pressure," she says. "For sure, after making it to the main draw of a Grand Slam, there is pressure on me. But I take it as a positive that I qualified for the main draw."
Travelling around the world at such a young age means that Brenda has to sacrifice a lot of things that others her age take for granted. She says she attends school online whenever she gets time, but has to physically appear for exams whenever she is back home. But she knew what she had to sacrifice — she is following the same path that her older sibling Linda embarked on. "I look up to my sister," Brenda says. "She was playing when I was small, so I wanted to play too. When I am back home, and my sister is back home as well, we just hang out with each other and do something fun. We go to the cinema, or go shopping or bake together."
Her immediate goal is to win her tenth ITF title here but her sights are already set on bigger things. 2023, Brenda hopes, will be the year she takes her game to the next stage. "My goals are to stay high up in the rankings and play bigger tournaments, like WTA events and Grand Slams," she says.