[.Ivan.]

Everyone is like I love Maria!! OR I love Petra!! and I'm just over here like....

[AnnieIWillKnow]

Originally Posted by I_Will2

Everyone is like I love Maria!! OR I love Petra!! and I'm just over here like....

I like them both... but I'm finding Petra increasingly disappointing. She has so much talent, and she's wasting it.

[.Ivan.]

Originally Posted by AnnieIWillKnow

I like them both... but I'm finding Petra increasingly disappointing. She has so much talent, and she's wasting it.

I think I care about them about the same, slight edge to Kvitova. However, she is squandering her talent at the moment. She will snap out of it though she's young so she has to work out whatever personal things she has going on before she can reach her full potential. Hope she snaps out of it sooner than later though.

[ZeroSumGame]

Originally Posted by alex.2812

Maria didn't put all that food on Petra's plate. So answer is no.

THIS!! Petra & her coach should lay down the cheese burgers, her fitness level is beyond ridiculous, it's evidently impacting on her game & confidence level. Petra's prolly the only top tenner who looks soooo unfit, Bartoli is a close 2nd

[GoldenFondue]

Sharapova ain't affect Kvitova at all, if anything it made Maria a lot less confident going into Grand Slam finals against lesser known opponents :dies:

[Viktymise]

Originally Posted by missvarsha

Well it's Fed Cup week, the perfect time for Ludmilla to beat up on a couple of poor scrubs, bounce around shouting KROTT !! and get her year back on track. Of course if she manages to lose this week (she won't) then you really have to wonder how much longer she should torture herself following a career she clearly hates and has no interest in.

Follow your bliss, Ludmilla, do a job you actually WANT to do instead of one that was picked out for you when you were 5 or 6 ... there is no shame in it.

missvarsha is always spilling that truth tea about Ludmila. Only bit that's wrong is the part about this career being picked out for her when she was 5 or 6; Ludmila didn't start training seriously until she was significantly older than that, probably when she realised she was actually pretty handy at this funny little game called tennis.

I think Corswandt is right when he says that Ludmila probably never envisaged herself as a top flight tennis player when she was younger, and therefore getting the motivation and drive to keep up the stringent fitness regimes of the majority of her contemporaries, who no doubt have been playing since they were 5 or 6, has proved a big, big struggle.

[Craig.]

Originally Posted by Viktymise

missvarsha is always spilling that truth tea about Ludmila. Only bit that's wrong is the part about this career being picked out for her when she was 5 or 6; Ludmila didn't start training seriously until she was significantly older than that, probably when she realised she was actually pretty handy at this funny little game called tennis.

I think Corswandt is right when he says that Ludmila probably never envisaged herself as a top flight tennis player when she was younger, and therefore getting the motivation and drive to keep up the stringent fitness regimes of the majority of her contemporaries, who no doubt have been playing since they were 5 or 6, has proved a big, big struggle.

How old?

[Viktymise]

From what I've read on here, wasn't she only casually playing tennis until she reached her early teens, or perhaps a little bit younger?

[pling]

Originally Posted by Viktymise

From what I've read on here, wasn't she only casually playing tennis until she reached her early teens, or perhaps a little bit younger?

wikipedia points to this article:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...-kvitova_n.htm

"...trained until 16 at her small Czech town of 6,000 residents, which had four tennis courts. She was coached by her non-tennis-playing father and hit with her brothers, usually for only an hour or two after school. Encouraged by the head of the prestigious tennis club at Prostejov, Kvitova began driving to the center..."

If you look at her ITF profile, there are some tournaments in Czech Republic & Slovakia in 2005 & 2006 (the first when she was almost 15), and then a few elsewhere from summer 2006 onwards (but not many until 2007)

[TrollPova]

Originally Posted by Sgt.Timmykinz

Kvitova's decline started way before that match. Masha fans really need to stop pushing this myth that she somehow broke Petra. I suppose anything to make Maria relevant!

But seriously, honey, the day any of your faves (aka Aga) become more relevant than Maria will be the day I sprout a vag

[Cosmic Voices]

that Adele gif

[TrollPova]

[VeeJJ]

no. But if you'd like to think that Sharapova has that kind of power in tennis you're more than welcome to.

[Caralenko]

Originally Posted by mreiter

But seriously, honey, the day any of your faves (aka Aga) become more relevant than Maria will be the day I sprout a vag

So any day now then.

[Excelscior]

Originally Posted by Viktymise

missvarsha is always spilling that truth tea about Ludmila. Only bit that's wrong is the part about this career being picked out for her when she was 5 or 6; Ludmila didn't start training seriously until she was significantly older than that, probably when she realised she was actually pretty handy at this funny little game called tennis.

I think Corswandt is right when he says that Ludmila probably never envisaged herself as a top flight tennis player when she was younger, and therefore getting the motivation and drive to keep up the stringent fitness regimes of the majority of her contemporaries, who no doubt have been playing since they were 5 or 6, has proved a big, big struggle.

Yes, you are correct.

Petra played tennis mostly for fun, but was good enough to play some Junior Tournaments here and there, around the Czech Republic and Europe. She grew up, playing indoors with her brothers on a converted basketball court, or outdoors on public Clay Courts, when it was warm enough.

But you're right, she didn't take herself seriously, until she decided to turn professional at 16-17 yrs old, and went for training at Prostojev. She was actually asked (according to her father) at 8 yrs old, but he declined. He wasn't ready for her to leave home. So that should tell you something, on how seriously (or the lack of it), that they/she took tennis.

Petra's two brothers were also surprised she was going to turn professional, cause they didn't think she was mean enough. They thought she was "too nice".

So a lot of this (playing tennis for "fun" vs other player that were bred for it young, with their requisite competitiveness, and Petra's "nice" personality) is just a reflection of her current/overall professionalism, seriousness, toughness and competitiveness.

Hopefully, she'll wise up, realize that this is her chosen living and toughen up and take it more seriously. Things were easy on the way up. Now she's the hunted, and has to be willing to put the work and focus in to maintain top flight results. Maybe she doesn't want to?

At the moment, her strategy, is to keep playing, until she's finds her form, gets hot, then goes on a roll. SMH

It would also have helped, if she didn't play Fed Cup, Czech Extraliga, and a Sharapova Exo--at the end of last year--while recovering from illness. I think that may have affected her preparation for the 2013 season as well.