Very choppy and laggy feed (and I have good Internet/never had a problem before). I hope the rest of them aren't like this from 'Down Under'. It was barely watchable most time.
Open roof with temperatures just below 30 degrees so it was certainly hot.
Most significant thing I observed was the pace of her serve and a somewhat different serve motion to produce serves with more pace, compared to her serves from 2012-most of 2013. She hit a number of aces too. Another thing: her footwork was really on sync today - which really helped her produce superb shots. Clinical performance at 6-1 6-0 in 57 minutes, Annabel's knees were taped but Petra was just on fire today. Perhaps the heat made her play quite efficiently well today. Good stuff.
To Excelsior:
Haven't really had any issues with the live streaming, except for some laggy moments. Overall, the video quality was alright.
Open roof with temperatures just below 30 degrees so it was certainly hot.
Most significant thing I observed was the pace of her serve and a somewhat different serve motion to produce serves with more pace, compared to her serves from 2012-most of 2013. She hit a number of aces too. Another thing: her footwork was really on sync today - which really helped her produce superb shots. Clinical performance at 6-1 6-0 in 57 minutes, Annabel's knees were taped but Petra was just on fire today. Perhaps the heat made her play quite efficiently well today. Good stuff.
To Excelsior:
Haven't really had any issues with the live streaming, except for some laggy moments. Overall, the video quality was alright.
Hopman Cup ‏@hopmancup 1h
Tomorrow's night session Order of Play: @Tsonga7 V Stepanek, @AlizeCornet V @Petra_Kvitova and then the mixed. #HopmanCup #7mate
Regardless of the weight, she was playing very much differently, relative to her previous match.
This match:
Lazy footwork, making her produce wild and inaccurate shots especially in the second set (concentration was gone, too passive with her shots), serve motion a la 2013 (with topspin instead of pace) so I didn't see the change of serve motion apparent in her previous match, lots of df's, explosiveness was lacking which was also evident during her previous match. Definitely a different Petra today. Kudos to Alize for being a good counterpuncher especially in the third set.
Yeah, this was certainly '13 Petra/P3tra. I am not sure what happened here but she was alright during the first and then during the second, the zip on her sots was gone and her footwork (which was fine during the first) became chaotic during the second, and the P3tra of course came out victorious during the third.
Stephens complained of a wrist injury at the end of the first set, her wrist was apparently already taped but it was concealed with a wristband so it wasn't evident at the start of the match.
Petra's play:
Stephens started well,counterpunching at her best and Petra making a little too many errors as the rally went on. The only good thing today was Petra's serve, she served a lot of first serves but I was not able to catch up on the exact percentage. Her serves were consistent and deep so she was able to win quite a number of cheap points. She made some abysmal ROS errors (mainly due to poor footwork), seeing that Sloane's serve was subpar. Pin-point accurate forehand. Overall, a usual match.
Sydney R1: (Q)Christina McHale d.Alize Cornet 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-5
Starting At: 12:00 noon Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL) [1] v [Q] Bethanie MATTEK-SANDS (USA
followed by [Q] Christina MCHALE (USA) v Petra KVITOVA (CZE) [2]
Remember the match, she lost, but she totally outplayed Christina in first set, then she had her classic health/breath/fitness/mental issues, but stayed in the match until bitter end.
Should be no problem tomorrow, but with Petra, who knows.
Edit: she has been ill
In late-in-the-day matches Sunday, third-seeded Petra Kvitova, last year's Wimbledon champion, was ousted by fast-rising American Christina McHale, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, and said afterward that she had been ill, had taken antibiotics and had "lost a bit of my fitness."
She had started fast, then yielded as McHale didn't crumble --"I just kind of hung in there," McHale said -- and eventually handed McHale a major boost when she double faulted twice to fall behind 5-3 in the final set.
This is the second match this year that Petra has won with her opponent winning only a single game. If I recall correctly, she did that only once last year, to Klara. Very exciting to hear of her playing awesome. Can't wait to see her do it to someone with a bigger name.
Did I not say GOATra would be back in 2014, didn't think it would be this early though...
Tougher matches to come though which will be the real test but this was one of the most impressive performances i've seen for a long while, looks like she's added a few things to her game, coming to the net more, using low risk shots for winners (slice down the line, WTF?) and she looked happy and confident!
Most relaxed i've been for a Petra match in a while. She only lost 2 points at net in the match. I want her up there at least 20 times per match(I believe she came up there 13). Poor Christina. Good to see her back on tour, but this was really poor. In fairness, Petra was at a level not seen in a very long time.