When talking about her upcoming exams at the Business Academy in Prague, 17-year-old Nicole Vaidišová, a tall blonde, looks no different from the other students.

And, like many, she's not terribly confident about math.

"Math has been a problem," she says with laugh. "I cannot get it in my head."

Even so, she adds quickly, with a resolve that does, in fact, set her apart, she doesn't plan to let anxiety stop her success. "I want to pass with excellent marks. That's all I care about."

That should surprise no one.

One week after skyrocketing to the semifinals at the French Open in Paris June 9, one of the most prestigious tournaments in tennis, Vaidišová found herself a newly launched star on the courts. She was also right back at work, studying to finish her second year at Prague 1's Business Academy. She admits she's had less time for homework than expected.

In preparing for her exams, Vaidišová employed the same strategy that won her victories in Paris.

"You're not just going to give it up, and say 'Maybe I'll try next time,' " she explains. "You just give it your all."

Which is basically how she became the first Czech to reach this level of the French Open since Jana Novotná in 1996. Together with the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, the Paris games are the biggest event in tennis worldwide.

En route to the crowning achievement of her career so far, Vaidišová beat the world's No. 1 player, Amelie Mauresmo of France, and then beat a former champ, Venus Williams of the United States.

In both matches, Vaidišová came back from being one set down and ran off with the next two sets.

By contrast, she was one set up and led five games to four in the second set against Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova on what turned out to be her last day in Paris. Despite the lead, she lost the game.

Vaidišová recalls the crucial moments of the most significant match that she's ever played without much sentiment. "It was not the thought of playing in the final that made me so nervous. More simply, I began playing worse and she improved."

With every word she says, it's quite apparent that she possesses confidence, which is normally not too common in Czechs her age. Born in Nuremberg, Germany, Vaidišová first learned tennis as a child in the Czech Republic but later moved with her mother and father-in-law to Florida. As for whether she feels more American than Czech, she's unequivocal:

"I'm Czech and I speak Czech without any American accent!"

Still, she admits that her stay in the United States had some positive side effects.

"It's true that people my age growing up in the Czech Republic are rather modest and not as self-confident as I am."

In the cards

While she admits that the clay courts of the French Open are not her favorite surface — and that she only celebrated one of her six tournament triumphs in the Women's Tennis Association there, the Paris games represent a landmark in Vaidišová's career.

As a 6-year-old, Vaidišová was glued to the TV screen in her home in Nuremberg as Steffi Graf held aloft her fourth French Open trophy in 1995. Weeks earlier, she had picked up a tennis racquet for the first time, and while she certainly had tennis in her genes — Czech star Daniel Vacek, who was in the top 30 in mid 1990s, is her uncle — no one was predicting what lay ahead of her.

In 1995, Vaidišová's mother left Germany to return to her native Czech Republic, and it was on the courts of the Sparta club in Prague that Nicole first showed signs of her burgeoning talent.

The more she played, the better she got, and she began to take the game seriously. Some find her stand-offish — French star player Mary Pierce commented that Vaidišová is happy to sit in the corner and mind her own business. But this can be put down to the young player's single-mindedness, and possibly to her personal passion for the game. "I only play because I love it, never because my entourage has forced me into it," Vaidišová says.

In 2000, she enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy in Florida, where she has since spent five months a year. By 2004, Vaidišová had won her first WTA tournament, having made it through tough qualifiers to win in Vancouver at the age of 15 — making her the sixth-youngest winner of a title on the professional circuit.

By the time she was 16, she had already made it into the top 50, and followed up her win in Vancouver with another tournament success in Tashkent.

At Vaidišová's age, the hottest currently leading players in women's tennis — Russia's Maria Sharapova, and Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, as well as U.S. pro Serena Williams — were still outside the top 150 and looking for their first tournament wins.

The down-to-earth Czech teen, by contrast, won in Tokyo, Bangkok and Seoul in 2005 under the coaching of her stepfather, Aleš Kodat, thus becoming the only player on the WTA circuit that year to win three consecutive tournaments.

All that was missing was a contract from a major sponsor — and along came Reebok, who signed Vaidišová up to headline their "I am what I am" campaign.

Given her blonde hair and attractive appearance, Vaidišová became a focal point of Reebok's fashion campaign and the company designed a special pink collection for her this year.

Next year, Vaidišová revealed, the company will release a collection she helped to design.

"I like pink, and there will be glittering beads and other decoration on it. ... Actually, I don't know whether I'll ever put it on, but I'm quite happy about it," she said.

No photos, please

Vaidišová's look, aggressive playing style and high ambitions have prompted comparisons to another tall, blonde and forceful youth: Russia's world No. 2, Maria Sharapova.

"I don't mind being compared to Sharapova," Vaidišová said. "I don't know her personally, and to be honest, I really don't see what we have in common, but I suppose that people like to make comparisons."