Team to Watch: Barbora Krejickova & Katerina Siniakova

There will be plenty of big names returning to the tour in 2021 and young players making their moves after an abbreviated 2020, but doubles will also take center stage. Baseline is taking a look at which teams to watch in the new year.

In 2020, the former top-ranked team of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova played six tournaments together—and reached the semifinals or better in all of them, including the French and Australian opens.

They also had some success on the singles side, too: Siniakova—a two-time title winner—advanced to the final of the $100,000 ITF event in Dubai a few weeks ago. Krejcikova, whose climb up the rankings has been slow and steady the past few years, made it to the fourth round of the French Open and has earned a solid spot in the WTA’s Top 75.

With both of the Czechs in their prime, will the pursuit of more singles success hamper their doubles results or with they be able to thrive in both?

The two have a long history together, dating back to their junior days when they won three Grand Slam titles together in 2013. And over that run, from Paris to Wimbledon to New York, the pair didn’t drop a set. In 2018, Siniakova and Krejcikova reached their first final on the senior tour in Shenzhen, China, where Siniakova—the defending singles champ—also finished as the runner-up in that discipline. Another final soon followed for the Czechs in Miami, solidifying their status as an up-and-coming team.

During the clay-court season that year, they captured their first title together—and the biggest of their respective careers—at the French Open.

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Krejcikova and Siniakova then followed that up with a win at Wimbledon and closed out the year with a runner-up finish at the WTA Finals. While they couldn’t replicate those feats the next year, Krejcikova started her climb up the singles rankings in earnest, winning four titles on the ITF Circuit.

2020 offered promise for both players, especially after they won their first title of the year in Shenzhen, then advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open. While Krejcikova and Siniakova were unable to add to their overall title haul, they each still finished in the top 10 of the individual doubles rankings.

They’re kicking off the 2021 season in Abu Dhabi against a strong field led by 2019 US Open winners Aryna Sabalenka and Elise Mertens, both of whom have been maintaining top-15 rankings in singles and doubles the past couple of years.

Will Siniakova and Krejcikova be able to reach that level of balance in 2021 or will one of the disciplines garner more focus? The Czechs have shown they’re ready for more, both together and apart.