Czech weekend headlines: Barbora Krejčíková wins Dubai Tennis Championships

Czech tennis star Barbora Krejčíková stunned WTA world number one Iga Świątek 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday evening to win the 2023  Dubai Tennis Championships. Krejčíková defeated the first, second, and third-ranked players in the world to win her first title of the year and sixth career singles title. It's also her second-straight victory over Poland's top-ranked Świątek.

"It means a lot to me. It was a great week for me. I improved with every match and today I gave my best," Krejčíková told reporters on the court after her victory. "I am very pleased with the result. I admire Iga for what she has achieved, I have great respect for her and she is a great inspiration to me. It was a great final and I am happy with the result."

Up to 15 centimeters of snow fell overnight in areas of high elevation in north Bohemia, and snow continues to fall this morning. The snowfall has resulted in traffic complications, with some roads near the Czech-Polish border closed to larger vehicles. Snow has also fallen in Prague over the past day, though temperatures in the city haven't been low enough to see much accumulation.

In the Krkonoše Mountains in North Bohemia, the mountain rescue service has issued a third-level avalanche warning on its five-level scale, indicating considerable danger. Hikers in the mountain range are advised to proceed with extreme caution, with the terrain described as treacherous.

The Czech Republic's Financial Market Guarantee System (GSFT) has compensated former Sberbank clients to the tune of more than CZK 25 billion over the past year. The Russian-owned bank permanently closed immediately following the invasion of Ukraine one year ago, and was declared bankrupt last summer.

The GSFT has compensated more than 87,000 of the bank's former clients through branches of Komerční banka in the Czech Republic. The CZK 25.362 billion represents 98 percent of total claims filed, and is the largest compensation in the history of the Czech deposit insurance system.

The Czech Health Ministry has spent in the range of 18 billion crowns to fight Covid over the past three years, according to data compiled by Czech News Agency. The highest cost was for vaccines, which cost CZK 14.6 billion, followed by CZK 2.37 billion for medical equipment including ventilators. More than CZK 940 million was spent on the Smart Quarantine information system, and CZK 160 million was spent on advertising.

The Czech Republic marks the three-year anniversary of the Covid epidemic this week; the first three Covid cases in the country were discovered on March 1, 2020. According to the Health Ministry, the country had received more than 37 million vaccine doses by the end of 2022, seven million of which had to be disposed of after they expired.

A Russia in internal conflict would be even more dangerous than the the current one, Czech President-elect Petr Pavel said in a livestream on Facebook on Saturday. He added that a solution to the conflict in Ukraine should not lead to Russia's collapse for this reason.

"A collapsed Russia would mean an immense problem," Pavel said, adding that after the end of the war, Russia should keep control and be able to lead international talks. He reiterated that the talks could start only if Ukraine regained control over the territory it held prior to 2014.

The Czech translations of Roald Dahl books will not be edited, Euromedia Group, which has published most of Dahl's library in Czech in recent years, has told local media. "We have published a total of 18 children's books by Roald Dahl, as well as the set 'Roald Dahl and his Fantastic World', which contains 12 of his most popular books," Euromedia spokesperson Helena Frantová Told Czech News Agency. "We are not planning any changes to the books yet."

Controversy has surrounded UK publisher Puffin for its decision to edit passages from Dahl's books that reference race, weight, height, mental health, and gender. The publisher announced yesterday that the original versions of the books would be made available alongside the censored versions after backlash that included comments from Queen Consort Camilla and Salman Rushdie. The statement from Euromedia follow a similar stance from French publisher Gallimard.

Czech tennis star Barbora Krejčíková has advanced to the finals at the 2023 Dubai Tennis Championships after defeating world number three Jessica Pegula 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 on Friday. Krejčíková, who won both singles and doubles titles at last year's French Open, avenged a defeat at the hands of Pegula earlier this year at the Australian Open.

Krejčíková will compete for her sixth career title later today, but will have to take on world number one Iga Świątek from Poland. The match begins at 4:00 p.m. Prague time. Earlier in the tournament, Krejčíková knocked out world number two Aryna Sabalenka as well as compatriot Petra Kvitová.

Surrealist Slovak film director Juraj Jakubisko, one of the leading figures of the Czech New Wave in the 1960s, passed away at his home in Prague on Friday evening, his daughter Janette Jakubiskova told reporters this morning. Jakubisko, who often drew comparisons to Federico Fellini, was 84 years old.

Jakubisko's 1968 film "Birds, Orphans and Fools", made following the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, resulted in a ban from communist censors. Following the Velvet Revolution, Jakubisko made two of his most acclaimed movies, "It's Better to Be Wealthy and Healthy Than Poor and Ill" and "An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World. Until the release of "Medieval last" year, Jakubisko's 2008 film "Bathory" was considered the most expensive Czech film ever made.

A car drove onto the sidewalk at Prague's  Jugoslávská Street near the I.P. Pavlova tram stop on Friday evening, driving into three people before crashing into a building, report local police. Rescuers treated five people at the scene, two from within the vehicle and the three pedestrians, all of whom were reported to be conscious and without serious injury.

The driver of the car reportedly suffered from a seizure. "Most likely due to a medical complication, the driver crashed into the building and hit pedestrians before that," reports Police spokeswoman Violeta Siřišťová. Firefighters also responded to the scene, and tram traffic at I.P. Pavlova was suspended for about half an hour.

Czech tennis star Kateřina Siniaková has advanced to the semifinals at the Merida Open Akron in Mexico this weekend with a victory over Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretta on Friday evening. Siniaková topped her opponent 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 in the two-hour match and will play in her first singles semifinals in five months this weekend.

Siniaková will next face Italy's Camila Giorgi tonight at 3:15 a.m. Prague time. In the quarterfinals, Giorgi knocked out second-seeded American Sloane Stephens 6-0, 6-0 in straight sets. The Czech star, who won the recent Australian Open doubles tournament with teammate Barbora Krejčíková, is currently 47 worldwide in WTA rankings.