Šafářová and Mattek-Sands awarded Doubles Wild Card
11th March 2024
Lucie Šafářová is back! The former World No. 5 in singles and former World No. 1 in doubles revealed to CANAL+ Sport that she’ll be returning to courts for doubles with her friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The Czech-American duo, dubbed “Bucie” by their fans, were awarded a wild card for the upcoming Livesport Prague Open 2024, but more tournaments are in the works.
Ever since
retiring from professional tennis back in 2019, Lucie Šafářová has gotten
married to ex-NHL hockey player Tomáš Plekanec and has mainly focused on their
two children – four-year-old daughter Leontýnka and two-year-old son Oliver. She
has also featured as a TV expert, sharing her tennis insight with viewers.
The 2015 Roland
Garros finalist surprised her fans by returning to courts already last Autumn
when she played a small ITF doubles tournament in Reims, France with her niece
Emma Dvořáčková, but now the 37-year-old announced that she’ll be returning for
a number of tournaments with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, reigniting a successful
partnership from 2015-2017 when the duo won five Grand Slam trophies.
“I want
Team Bucie to return to the courts, we’ll have a bit of fun and I’m looking
forward to my children seeing me in action,” revealed Lucie Šafářová during the
Advantage Bethanie Mattek-Sands show on the CANAL+ Sport channel.
“We won’t
be focusing on any targets,” said Mattek-Sands, “but whenever we’re together
there’s so much energy and it’s so much fun. She’s like a ray of light in my
life.”
The popular
doubles pair are already set to start at the upcoming Livesport Prague Open
2024, which will be played on clay courts this season, between Sunday, 21 July
and Friday, 26 July at the Sparta Prague Tennis Club.
“When Lucie
got in touch about a possibility of a wild card, we didn’t hesitate for a
moment,” said tournament and Sparta Prague Tennis Club director Miroslav Malý,
“it’s funny that we held a farewell for Lucie in front of Czech fans here in
Prague all those years ago and now she’s returning! We’re looking forward and
hard at work preparing a big return for her. Knowing Lucie, we’re in for some
great matches!”
Team Bucie
has never played in Prague before, but where else will the duo’s big return
take them? Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam title they are missing, would be an
ideal choice.
“Unfortunately,
I don’t have the necessary ranking,” said Šafářová, “so we would have to be
given a wild card which is complicated, but we would like to try some
tournaments in America in August,” she ended.
Photo: Livesport Prague Open / Pavel Lebeda (sport-pics.cz)
