On March 7, Marie Bouzkova achieved a new milestone when she defeated Johanna Konta to reach her first WTA final in Monterrey. A day later, Bouzkova would fall to top seed Elina Svitolina in three tight sets. Around the same time that battle finished, Indian Wells began what evolved into a five-month shutdown on tour.
The Czech, whose family relocated to Bradenton, Fla. when she was 10, kept plugging away as the weeks of inactivity passed by. Even with increasing her course load for her business degree, Bouzkova hardly let up on training, and it's shown this week in Lexington, K.Y. The 22-year-old has dropped serve just once in each of her two singles wins, which included a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Konta, the No. 3 seed. She's also scored a pair of doubles successes alongside Jil Teichmann, with the duo eliminating "McCoco"—Coco Gauff and Caty McNally—in their opener.
TENNIS.com spoke with Bouzkova for a Zoom catch-up prior to Friday's quarterfinals, where she'll look to continue her winning ways against American Jennifer Brady.
Earlier this week, you shared how busy you’ve been with your studies, but maybe it’s time for you to teach a class on stress management. You’ve really seemed to continue the level you had before the break this week. How satisfied are you with the way you’ve handled the stress of starting back up again and being able to produce on your terms so far?
Even though I wasn’t playing any tournaments throughout these five months, I was always trying to keep myself active mentally. When I’m playing well, it’s when I’m mentally focused and just not giving up any points. I tried to keep doing the same as I was doing before. I was forcing myself at times, because it seemed endless, the break. I’m happy I’m still able to maintain my focus through all these matches.
During the break, did you ever have a period where you just said, you know what, ‘I’m not a tennis player today. I’m going to sleep when I want, eat what I want, watch as much TV as I want,’ and not worry?
Not really. Just the first week when I came back from Mexico, I took a week off. I started practicing but then I needed to take out my wisdom teeth. So I didn’t play for like 10 days. That was the only time I took a break. I felt like I’m motivated and wanted to keep working on my game and maybe improve my overall level of everything. I was looking forward to [doing] that in those months.
In getting your wisdom teeth pulled, did you end up saying anything crazy to your family when you first came out of the surgery?
Actually, I wasn’t asleep. They did a local [anesthesia]. I just had one half taken out five years ago and then I never had time to take out the other half, so I just figured I should do it now because I’m never ever going to get five months off. The doctor told me, if you want to fall asleep, then you’re going to feel a little bit drunk. And I said, ‘Well you know what, it’s OK. I never felt drunk in my life yet, so I’m just going to wait for it still.’