In the under-12 category, he eliminated one opponent after another, most recently he also won the unofficial European Championship at the academy of game legend Rafael Nadal. Coach compares new Czech tennis talent Veronika Sekerková with Martina Hingisová. At the same time, he rolled not only on the field, but also at school. He is fluent in English and French.
He was born into a sports family. His father, Ivo Sekerka, made his way into football on the bench for the Blšan league and later led logistics at the Football Association of the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, now the 12-year-old blonde is photographed with a tennis trophy.
The last time he robbed a Rafael Nadal “temple” like this was in Mallorca, where the Masters for Europe’s best under-12 players were held last week. Sekerková dominated both singles and doubles there.
“Rafael Nadal Academy is a beautiful modern complex. I really liked it there. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great for us, the tournament kept moving from outdoor to indoor courts. The worst was the first match, I was seeded first and I knew I had to won everything to advance from the group and not cause any embarrassment,” the young tennis player told Aktuálně.cz.
Although, like all season in Mallorca, Sekerková outplayed all opponents and dominated the singles and doubles, she did not meet the Spanish tennis matador directly.
“He is present in the area. During the tournament, there is also a mentoring program for the players, which Rafa may have visited, but I didn’t join this program, because during the tournament I was just concentrating on the match and I didn’t like being distracted by anything else. But I really like him, I support him, he’s great,” he said.
En route to the title, he had to beat rivals from Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Italy, Russia and Serbia in singles.
“Besides her tennis skills, she also had to show mental resilience. The tournament was of high quality, the organizers managed to put together a great event in such a difficult time,” said Barbora Michalková from the company SPORT INVEST Tennis, who represented the young hope Tennis and accompanied her on the venue.
He praised the organizers of the European Tennis federation which is chaired by Czech tennis chief, Ivo Kaderka, from the position of president.
Sekerková, a Prague I. ČLTK player, is on a par with other Czech tennis teenagers who are slowly making their way to fame and promise the next generation of stars on the world court.
“He’s an undoubted talent. He loves to play matches, he loves to compete with his opponents. It’s a big assumption that he can learn tennis and improve. He reads and sees the game well, not just on the backhand and forehand basis, which usually according to his age. He uses the entire court. He knows how to react to the play of his opponents, their strengths and weaknesses. This makes him dangerous for others,” explained sporting director I. ČLTK Petr Vaníček.
Former coach Andrea Sestina Hlaváčková partially worked with Sekerková as a coach, so he has an idea of the type of player the young talent grew out of.
“She reminds me a bit of Bára Strýcová, who always pays for an all-rounder. And by exaggeration, I can also say Martina Hingisová. She also stands close to the line and plays the ball immediately after the rebound, uses shorts, lobs, can play corners too . In addition, he could clearly sell it even in doubles, although he practically did not practice it,” explained Vaníček.
At the same time, Sekerková didn’t just play on the pitch. He attended a bilingual school and is fluent in English and French.
“She’s a very smart girl. She thinks a lot about tennis and thinks about it. I think somewhere in her head she has this thought that if she doesn’t become a very successful tennis player, she’s going to learn. She’s not going to try endlessly to see if she works, and if it doesn’t work, he has options to make,” the trainer praised him.
The art of other languages is a solid advantage for a teenager in the world of tennis. “It gives her freedom and liberty. Not every tournament has matches played with referees, so the girls often judge the matches themselves. This creates a lot of conflict situations, and with language skills like that on the court, you know you can advise each other others at such times and don’t be fooled ” adds Vaníček.
However, he himself did not allow himself to guess whether Veronica would eventually make her way to the top of the world among adults.
Now he gets a lot of benefit from feeling the ball, knowing what the ball will do to the racket and what to play when. Adult women’s tennis is getting very physical at this point. And the question is whether he will be able to replace it with skills in the future, or if he is willing to work on matchmaking the girls. He has decent footwork and physical potential. Sometimes it’s more complicated with him in terms of movement, but always in the sense that he plays what he needs to,” he said.
Roman Boška, former junior hockey extra league goalkeeper, currently works with him on fitness.
“In the end, this speed will get him nowhere, and that’s why Petr sometimes has to poke or tease him to get him to move and play faster,” said current hockey stars former teammates Richard Pánik and Tomáš Kundrátek.
However, his approach to fitness training should be commended by trainers. “He takes fitness like his daily bread and we have no problem persuading or forcing him to train. In fact, in three years it has never happened that Verča apologized and didn’t come to training, which is something special at his age, ” he added.
Next season, Sekerková will move up to the under-14 category, and from September, when she will celebrate her 13th birthday, she will want to try out some ITF junior tournaments.
