Tereza Valentova, the promise of Czech tennis that emerges from her problems

At just 18 years old, the young Czech has been making waves this season on the circuit. Her significant step into the professional level, although not definitive, came at Roland Garros, where she reached the second round. There, she lost to Coco Gauff in two sets and, although she is still present in the ITF tournament, Tereza Valentova made a big impact this week at WTA Prague 2025, where she has already made it to the semifinals, her first at WTA level.

Just 14 months ago, Tereza won the junior Roland Garros, and in this short period of time, Valentova seems to be already prepared to move up to the next significant stage of her career. As a reward for this great streak, the young Czech will debut next week in the Top 100 as the world number 91.

The audience

“I learned that I can play against myself, against my opponent, and against a huge audience at the same time,” confessed the Czech tennis promise in statements to the official WTA page. “I expected many people to cheer, but I didn’t expect it. There were boys from a football team chanting all the time. When I went for the towel, a boy shouted at me from half a meter away.”

Obstacles along the way

Around this time last year, just a few weeks after winning the junior Roland Garros, Tereza was expecting to debut at the WTA Prague, but a severe stress injury in her hip turned everything upside down: “It was quite bad, and I didn’t know if I would play tennis again. The next time won’t be so bad.”

Despite her great success in ITF tournaments, the young Czech was not entirely happy due to the high demands of her former coach: “I cried a lot at tournaments, and it was very tough. It was a detrimental situation for my mental health.” Although with changes already made in her team, in 2025 she has shown great advances in Grand Slam events: “It showed me that I can play with the best players because I don’t think I played my best tennis and still kept up with them.”

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Tereza Valentova, la promesa del tenis checo que resurge de sus problemas