Rancho Mirage native Desirae Krawczyk completing dream season at home in Indian Wells

Desirae Krawczyk started the 2021 tennis season trying to establish herself on the WTA Tour. Now she’s ending her dream season playing World Team Tennis in the Coachella Valley, already thinking about pursuing her fourth Grand Slam title.

“I think next week it’ll start to sink in,” said Krawczyk, who is playing the WTT season this week for the Orange County Breakers at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. “It’s been a great but crazy year, for sure.”

The Rancho Mirage native is joined by Americans Steve Johnson and Austin Krajicek and Germany’s Tatjana Maria on the Breakers. The team is aiming to play in the WTT finals Sunday inside Stadium 2, and will need to finish in the top two in the standings after Saturday's matches to do that.

“It’s been really fun to play in this team environment here at home,” Krawczyk said. “It’s another event, and it allowed me to be home with friends and my family, so it’s really cool.”

Krawczyk, 27, won Grand Slam mixed doubles titles this season at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, becoming just the second woman to win three majors in mixed doubles in a single season since 1985. She has earned $479,889 this season.

Martina Hingis was the last player, in 2015, to win three mixed doubles Grand Slams in the same season. Prior to Hingis, Martina Navratilova was the last to do it when she won three of four in 1985.

Krawczyk then played in four more events, including the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, before she and doubles partner Alexa Guarachi played at the prestigious WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico, earlier this month. The pair won one of three matches in Guadalajara.

That was an event that put Krawczyk into elite company, playing against the top doubles teams in the world at an event every player, in singles and doubles, aspires to reach each season.

“It was awesome,” Krawczyk said. “That was our goal this year and it was definitely a cool experience to be one of the top eight teams. The goal was to compete at the Grand Slams and after that to get to play in that elite company and it was a great experience.”

Krawczyk is finally able to relax a bit in a casual atmosphere at WTT, having traveled from New York to Palm Springs, to Boston and Chicago before playing at Indian Wells, then playing in Russia and Mexico before returning back home to the valley.

She said she’ll play here this week, then head to Arizona for training next month. She’ll then travel to Australia for a few weeks prior to January’s Australian Open, where she is scheduled to play with mixed doubles partner Joe Salisbury of Great Britain in hopes of capturing the one Grand Slam mixed doubles title that she did not win this year.

Salisbury raised the championship trophy this year with Krawczyk at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open. The goal, of course, after such a memorable season, will be to raise the trophy together in Melbourne to start what Krawczyk hopes will be the start to another big season.

“I’ve thought about it, but not much,” Krawczyk said. “I’m just trying to enjoy my time here at home and then I’ll start thinking more about that.

“It’s definitely exciting, though. I’m looking forward to it.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Desirae Krawczyk completing dream season at home at Indian Wells