Bronze Weekend: Czech Tennis Stars Score Three Medals

When Czech tennis stars Lucie Šafářová & Barbora Strýcová and Lucie Hradecká & Andrea Hlaváčková faced each on Saturday, it was a foregone conclusion that the Czech Republic would earn a bronze from the game.

But the Czech Republic also won a pair of other bronze medals over the weekend, as Petra Kvitová topped USA’s Madison Keyes in women’s singles action and Hradecká & Radek Štěpánek beat India’s Sania Mirza & Rohan Bopanna in mixed doubles.

Poor Andrea Hlaváčková: not only was she struck in the eye by a comeback from Martina Hingis in the doubles semifinal game, but she’s also the only Czech tennis player (along with Lukáš Rosol) to go home without a medal.

Hlaváčková was struck on Friday night as she and Lucie Hradecká were a single point away from defeating Switzerland’s Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky in the second set to win the match.

But after the hit, the Swiss pair came back to win the second set, and ultimately the third, moving past the Czech team to the gold medal game (they ultimately lost to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina).

The comebacker broke Hlaváčková’s orbital bone, sending her to the hospital for a few hours as doctors warned her against playing for bronze the following day. 

Hlaváčková, who may require surgery, wasn’t very happy with Hingis, telling reporters after the match that the Swiss star “was more concerned about not getting a medical timeout for me than about my eye.”