Czech ‘Angry Birds’ of tennis finally together at last
BEIJING: They are the same age, grew up together in a Czech city famous for its beer and form a potent women’s doubles team fondly known in tennis as the “Angry Birds”.
Barbora Strycova and Andrea Sestini Hlavackova joke that there is “something in the water” of their home of Plzen that makes them so feisty.
Or perhaps it should be “something in the beer” – Plzen is a renowned city for beer and Hlavackova’s father Jan is a master brewer.
Whatever it is, it is working for the duo, who are both 32 and have known one another since they were babies because their mothers were friends before they were born.
Together, they have qualified for the seasonending WTA Finals in Singapore later this month, one of the most prestigious events in tennis.
The “Angry Birds” nickname was thought up by Hlavackova’s coach and comes partly from their aggression on court and partly from a play on their names: Andi and Bara.
“We were playing in Madrid in one of our first tournaments (Madrid Open in May) and we said that we are feisty little girls,” Hlavackova said at the China Open in Beijing, where they reached the semifinals yesterday. “‘Angry Birds’ fits I think,” chirped up Strycova, the older of the two by less than five months.
“I can be angry sometimes and we are flying on the court and running a lot, so it’s a good name for us.”
Given that Strycova and Hlavackova “spent every day together growing up”, it is a surprise that they only began their partnership at the Miami Open in March.
It should come as less of a surprise that success came quickly, winning the title in New Haven in August.
At the US Open, where they were third seeds, they were surprisingly beaten in the last 16.
But they head to Singapore as one of the most feared double acts in women’s tennis.
Explaining why they left it late in their careers to team up, Hlavackova said: “Bara was always ahead of me, she was always playing a higher level.
“And I had a stable partner for a long time and never thought about changing partners, and we were playing well (with her then partner Lucie Hradecka), so it was never in place to even talk about it.”
Then in February, by chance, both were looking for a new partner, and with their shared history, it all finally fell into place.
“I was like ‘Wow, this was never an option before’,” said Hlavackova, who has 26 WTA doubles titles, including two Grand Slams, to Strycova’s 22.
They believe that their contrasting playing styles complement each other well, but most importantly, they understand one another in so many respects.