Plus: What rule of tennis would she change if she could?

Former Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova has had a resurgent fornight at Wimbledon. Having entered the grass-court Grand Slam with just seven wins for the season in singles, the Czech is through to the quarterfinals for the first time, where she’ll face another former winner in Paris, Jelena Ostapenko, on Centre Court.

The big payday that comes with such an achievement would make the Czech’s late mentor, former Wimbledon Jana Novotna, pretty happy, too. As she waited out yet another rain delay at this year’s Championships that affected her doubles match with Laura Siegemund on Tuesday, Krejcikova revealed the funny piece of advice that Novotna once gave her in a Q&A with fans on X, formerly Twitter.

“I don’t have an exact answer to be honest. I still think about her A LOT so she is still teaching me in some way,” Krejcikova wrote. “I think her advices would be more accurate now.

“But funny thing—she was very keen on me starting to fly in a business class as soon as I could afford it.”