When Janette Husarova took the court with doubles partner Varvara Lepchenko in Charleston Tuesday night, after the shocker loss by a hobbling Serena Williams, we’d be willing to bet that nearly everyone in the crowd was unaware they’d already seen her.
Jana Cepelova, the young Slovak who upset Williams 6-4, 6-4, has Martin Zathurecky listed as her coach. But apparently he isn’t in Charleston.
Instead, it was Husarova who came on during the lengthy medical timeout at 2-1 in the second set. And boy, did she do a great job.
Husarova kept Cepelova laughing, loose, and it appears as though she reminded her to cover herself up with a towel, then a jacket, to stay warm as Williams had various body parts attended to.
When play began again, Cepelova didn’t let go of it.
About 10 minutes later, Husarova came back on court to earn her own living.
Who is Husarova? She’s a doubles specialist now, sort of a partner-for-hire who plays with a lot of different people and probably often picks them up at the sign-in at various tournaments.
But 11 years ago, she reached as high as No. 31 in the world in singles.
In doubles, she has done even better – up to No. 3 in April, 2003. She’s currently ranked a more-than-respectable No. 45.
We knew she’d been around awhile; we were shocked to look her up and see that she turns 40 on June 4. That’s exactly twice the age of her young protégé on this night.
She doesn’t look it. Second, it’s not something you ever hear about. And you should.
Husarova has 25 WTA Tour doubles titles, and another 16 on the ITF circuit (in addition to four singles titles).
She won six in 2002 alone, and made six other finals, including the U.S. Open with Elena Dementieva.
Husarova has won one title since 2008, with Magdalena Rybarikova (another young Slovak) in Budapest in 2012.
She gets special credit for what she did for her young countrywoman on this night. We suspect she’s got “Slovak Fed Cup captain” to be added on her resumé.
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