Tennis Forum banner

Petra Kvitova News and Articles

376K views 4K replies 148 participants last post by  czerwony ptak 
#1 ·
Since she's all famous and stuff, we should post all interesting articles in here. :lol:

http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-opinion/6732836/wimbledon-petra-kvitova-new-star-born

In Petra Kvitova, a new star is born
Jul 2 | By Sandra Harwitt

Petra Kvitova is not the type of individual who seeks attention. She's kind of shy about her achievements.

But after defeating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday for the Wimbledon title, she can't escape being famous.

"I'm so tired," Kvitova told about 10 journalists receiving some extra time with the champion after she did her main news conference and TV interviews. "I know it will change. I don't know what it will be [like] in [her native] Czech Republic."

When asked if she ever had a desire to be famous, the 21-year-old struggled to answer the question.
"I mean, it's part of being a tennis player, being famous," she eventually said. "So when I won Wimbledon, I had to agree [with it]."

One sign of that fame is being added to the Wimbledon Wall of Champions, which is located within the inner sanctum of the All England Club. The new champion's name -- clear and bold in gold lettering -- is put in its rightful spot even before the trophy ceremony on Centre Court is concluded.

Kvitova was able to watch the procedure when it was shown on the Centre Court scoreboard. Whether she's ready or not, Kvitova knew it was just another sign of her burgeoning stardom.

"When I was sitting on the court after the match I saw it [happening] on the TV," Kvitova said. "It was strange."
 
See less See more
#3 ·
Wimbledon 2011: Maria Sharapova gracious in defeat and backs Petra Kvitova for future grand slam wins

Maria Sharapova believes new Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will capture more grand slam titles, even in the teeth of fierce competition from big-hitters like the Williams sisters and Kim Clijsters.

Link : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/te...Petra-Kvitova-for-future-grand-slam-wins.html


More to come: Maria Sharapova praised Petra Kvitova after the Czech won the Wimbledon title Photo: GETTY IMAGES

5:44PM BST 02 Jul 2011
Kvitova became just the third Czech woman to win Wimbledon after nine-time champion Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna when she upset the odds to defeat 2004 champion Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday.

"She's a grand slam champion. She has a tremendous amount of potential to go even further and achieve many great things. If she keeps playing like that and keeps her level up, she has a great game for it," said Sharapova.

Serena and Venus Williams both made early exits at Wimbledon after lengthy lay-offs while Clijsters skipped the tournament through injury.

All three are expected, however, to be serious contenders once the US Open swings around in August.

"She has a very powerful game, so it's not unexpected. When she uses that, that's her strength. That's how she wins matches, when she goes for her shots, and they're very flat."

Sharapova also has no doubts that Kvitova is probably a better player than the current crop of young stars inside the top 10, such as current world number one Caroline Wozniacki and Wimbledon semi-finalist Victoria Azarenka.

"I think she's a much more powerful hitter, she has bigger strokes, and I would say probably a better serve," said Sharapova.

Kvitova, playing in her first grand slam final, never allowed Sharapova to settle and broke the Russian five times.

The Czech girl, who made the semi-finals in 2010, was broken three times herself but she played freely, making the most of being the only left-handed player in the top 20.

Sharapova, who had been bidding for a fourth grand slam crown, admitted that facing a left-handed player posed particular challenges.

"She used that to her advantage a lot. There are a lot more righties on the tour than lefties," said the Russian.

"She was hitting really powerful and hitting winners from all over the court. She made a defensive shot into an offensive one. I think she was just more aggressive, hit deeper and harder, and got the advantage in the points.

"In all, she performed incredible. Sometimes when you don't know what to expect and you don't know how you're going to feel, sometimes you play your best because you have that feeling of nothing to lose. She went for it."
 
#5 ·
This one is c. 95% about Martha, but I liked the Hingisova quote I bolded:

A star is born, another is reborn at Wimbledon
By JOHN LEICESTER, AP Sports Columnist
Jul 2, 5:10 pm EDT


http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/news?slug=ap-johnleicester-070211

WIMBLEDON, England (AP)—Not a bad day’s work for women’s tennis. In new Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, it has a new star. In runner-up Maria Sharapova, it has a star reborn. And Serena Williams showed on these lawns she is several steps down the comeback trail, too. So just why, exactly, were so many people so down not so long ago about the state of the women’s game?

Kvitova’s first major title won’t be her last.

She cracks forehands and backhands like Indiana Jones’ whip. Her left-handed serve, particularly when thumped down out wide, is as slippery as snakes in soapsuds for righties like Sharapova to grab hold of. Kvitova showed the same brand of fearlessness that Sharapova wowed Centre Court with as an insouciant 17-year-old champion in 2004. The wavy-haired blonde from the Czech Republic is the complete tennis package, with the cool-under-pressure poise that allows champions to convert mere opportunities into actual trophies.

“I don’t think this is the only time she’ll win here,” said 18-time major winner Martina Navratilova. “It’s very exciting. A new star.”

Since the Open era began in 1968, most women—two-thirds, to be precise— have lost their first Grand Slam final.

Kvitova, whose previous Grand Slam best was a Wimbledon semifinal last year, looked at home on the unfamiliar stage. Nerves and over-hit forehands cost Kvitova her first service game. But those in the crowd who wondered whether she might simply wilt from that point quickly got their answer when Kvitova immediately broke back.

Against players who roll over far easier than the ever-gritty Sharapova, the final score could have been 6-1, 6-1, not 6-3, 6-4—so convincing was Kvitova’s play.

“And serving it out with an ace, now that’s fashion,” said Martina Hingis, the 1997 champion.

Sharapova studied the runner’s-up trophy with a detached, half-interested air.

“Obviously, I would have wanted that big one,” the Russian said.

Well, perhaps next time. That can be said with more, although not absolute, confidence now. But it would not have been said a year ago. Then, it seemed that the former No. 1 might never recapture the strength she lost when her right shoulder first started creaking like an ungreased cog in 2007 and then ultimately failed her in 2008.

She had a cortisone shot to get her through the 2007 French Open, where “I basically played without a shoulder,” and anti-inflammatories and 2 1/2 hours of treatment each day—acupuncture, massage, ice, “you name it, I do it,” she said—at Wimbledon that year.

She went on an 18-match winning streak after winning the 2008 Australian Open. But the shoulder problems returned with a vengeance not long after she lost in the second round of Wimbledon that year, her earliest Grand Slam exit since her first full season on tour in 2003. She couldn’t play at the Beijing Olympics, nor at the U.S. Open. The medical verdict: not only had she torn the rotator cuff tendon that helps to stabilize the shoulder but had been playing with the injury for months.

From there, it has been a long and winding road back. Ten weeks of shoulder rehab in Arizona with similarly injured pitchers and quarterbacks didn’t stop the pain, so she had surgery. At that point, many others might have given up. Not Sharapova. With her semifinal this year at Roland Garros and, now, her second Wimbledon final, she’s undeniably back.

For athletes who once felt invincible, injury confronts them with their own vulnerability. It can make confident world beaters more timid. There is the shock of discovering that while they are sidelined, the sport they once ruled carries on without them and, sometimes, depression for those, like Sharapova, who can’t be sure how quickly they will heal.

“It’s a little terrifying,” said Sean McCann, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Sport Psychology department. “Some people don’t have the willpower and drive to pull that off.”

Willpower is not something Sharapova lacks.

“Even among top athletes, it’s a rather unique story—her ability to fight back multiple times from injury,” McCann said. “Impressive.”

But when Williams, a fourth-round Wimbledon loser, is back to her best after her 11 months out with a cut foot and blood clots on the lungs, and when absentee Kim Clijsters’ right ankle is better, how will Sharapova fare then? Her serve is still a weakness. She had successive double-faults that not only gave the sixth game of the first set to Kvitova but gave the future champion the momentum, too.

Billie Jean King said Sharapova has “fought her shoulder and had to change her swing on her serve.”

“Her shoulder is so loose, the joint, that she had trouble knowing where the face of the racket is on the back swing,” she said. “She’s much better now. If you notice she has a shorter, abbreviated—it’s not abbreviated abbreviated—but it’s shorter and doesn’t come back as far on the back part of her swing as it did when she won here when she was 17.”

Still, you can be sure that Sharapova will be out working the practice courts as soon as this disappointment wears off.

This wasn’t an epic final. It wasn’t a bore, either.

Kvitova and women’s tennis were both winners.
 
#6 ·
A few more I stole from the Cult (mostly detected and posted by lexpretend).

This one is a profile in the shape of a quaestio. Bolded part. :devil:

Wimbledon 2011: Petra Kvitova profile
The Czech champion follows in the footsteps of Jana Novotna and Martina Navratilova after her SW19 exploits


guardian.co.uk, Saturday 2 July 2011 18.56 BST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/02/wimbledon-2011-petra-kvitova-profile

So who's this new Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, then? (It was so much easier to keep track when it was always one or other of the Williams sisters.)

She's the 21-year-old world No7, and the current holder of the Women's Tennis Association's 'Newcomer of the Year' award.

Presumably that's a prestigious bauble?

Past winners include multiple slam winners such as Venus, Serena, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis.

So her ascension to the top was pretty much guaranteed…

Not necessarily. The WTA Newcomer roll call also includes long-forgotten grand-slam failures such as Daja Bedanova, Irina Spirlea and Caroline Wozniacki.

Very droll. Look, was this a bolt from the blue or not?

No. Her form has been improving: she made the quarter-finals at this year's Australian Open, losing 6-2, 6-4 to last year's losing Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva, then made the fourth round of the French Open, losing to the eventual winner Li Na.

Not bad...

Ah, but we've not even mentioned her grass-court nous yet. It's her best surface. She was an unseeded semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, losing in straight sets to Serena Williams. And just before this year's tournament, she was runner-up at Eastbourne.

Yes, in retrospect she was clearly on the march. Where does she hail from?

She's from a village in the north-east of the Czech Republic called Fulnek. She's not the first tennis player from the area to make it to Wimbledon; Kveta Peschke reached the fourth round in 2005.

She's certainly not the first Czech woman to emerge victorious from SW19...

Indeed she is not. Jana Novotna won in 1998, and of course there's nine-times champion Martina Navratilova, though if you're being picky, she was a naturalised US citizen by the time of her successes.

Is Martina is one of Kvitova's heroes?

Naturally, along with Hana Mandlikova. But Navratilova is her favourite, given that they're both left handed.

The similarities are striking.

Nearly. One down, eight still to go.
 
#7 ·
Wimbledon 2011: Petra Kvitova defeats Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 to win women's singles final on Centre Court

So the moneyed and honeyed Maria Sharapova had her Wimbledon final hijacked by an opponent, who, in some ways, is an anti-Maria, an anti-celebrity.


By Mark Hodgkinson
4:02PM BST 02 Jul 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/te...win-womens-singles-final-on-Centre-Court.html

The unstarry, unaffected Petra Kvitova, a 21 year-old from the Czech Republic who thinks of herself as a "jeans and T-shirt" kind of girl, and who could not even tell you who her favourite clothes designer is, played with a nerveless ease to defeat Sharapova on Centre Court for her first grand slam title.

It had been widely supposed that this title-match would bring a comeback victory for the world's highest-earning sportswoman, for the groomed and polished Sharapova, for the lady whose face has launched a thousand advertising campaigns, yet she was beaten by someone who does not appear to know how good she is.

Kvitova, ranked eighth in the world, certainly does not have the look of an athlete who has spent much time considering her own worth. Had Sharapova won this match, kisses would have been blown to all corners of Centre Court; in the moments after Kvitova's 6-3, 6-4 victory, which she had completed with an ace banged through into the backstop, the Czech sat on her chair with her hands covering her mouth.

During an on-court interview with the BBC, Kvitova broke off and half turned away when she thought that Sue Barker was finished with her, so looking every bit like someone not used to what happens after winning a title on a big occasion. Soon after being presented with the Venus Rosewater Dish, she walked off the turf and was shown the honours board, which already had her name on it, and she let out a little embarrassed giggle, and she was then a touch self-conscious and awkward, though obviously pleased too, after she took the trophy out the back of the stadium to show the crowds.

Kvitova made for a low-to-middling tennis celebrity, and a superb, delightful Wimbledon champion.

So Kvitova became the youngest Wimbledon champion since Sharapova won this title as a 17-year-old in 2004. Whenever anyone looks back to that final, when Sharapova defeated Serena Williams, they remember it as the afternoon when she gave birth to a brand. While no one is ever going to win Wimbledon and keep a low profile, it did not feel as though this was the moment that launched Kvitova as a megastar.

That is not to criticise or to patronise her; not everyone can have, and not everyone wants to have, Sharapova's life. Though Sharapova and Kvitova are both very tall, very modern Eastern Europeans who cuff the ball, they are plainly not two chips from the same Eastern Bloc.

Sharapova was born in Siberia; but she is really a product of Florida and that tennis factory known as the Nick Bollettieri Academy. Kvitova, who was born in the Moravian-Silesian region of the Czech Republic, still lives in the family home in the small town of Fulnek.

Whatever Kvitova lacked in poise after the match and between points, she showed plenty when the tennis was actually being played. Plus, a lot of strength in her arm. There have not been many occasions in Sharapova's tennis life when she has been out-hit, but this was one of them, as Kvitova prevented Sharapova from winning her first grand slam since the 2008 Australian Open and since the operation to her shoulder.

Once again, Sharapova had some problems with her serve. In her semi-final against the German wild card Sabine Lisicki, Sharapova had struck 13 double-faults, and she committed another six in this final, including a run of three in a row spread over two games. But Sharapova, who had reached the final without dropping a set, did not beat herself with her own serving yips; she was beaten by Kvitova's fine grass-court tennis.

When Kvitova arrived at the All England Club last summer she had never won a match on grass (she had lost her first four appearances on the surface), and then she made the semi-finals, She came back this year and won the whole thing. What was so welcome about this result was that Kvitova was playing freely and taking big swings; in contrast, you could say, to the careful, overly-defensive play from Caroline Wozniacki, who is officially the best player in the women's game, but who is yet to win a major.

This was one for the lefties. No longer do you have to cast around in the Royal Box for the last left-hander to have won this tournament. Given all the supposed advantages of being a leftie on a grass court, it is strange to think that, before this match, the last southpaw champion was Martina Navratilova, the winner here in the summer of 1990.

That was when Kvitova was just four months old. Navratilova was here to see this. In the Open era, only four left-handed players have appeared in grand slam finals – Ann Jones, Monica Seles, Navratilova and now Kvitova. However, you could say that, for a moment or two, this was an all-left-handed final.

Sharapova, who is ambidextrous, played left-handed until she was 10, and on a couple of occasions, after being sent wide on what would have been her backhand side, she switched the racket into her other hand and attempted a leftie forehand. The most emotional moment came when Kvitova looked up at Navratilova and also at Jana Novotna, who had previously been the last Czech woman to have won this tournament with her victory in 1998. Kvitova's eyes turned pink and puffy.

Kvitova had been oblivious to Sharapova's grunting. The fact that she had played the shrieking Victoria Azarenka of Belarus a round earlier was probably useful as it meant that she had recent experience of dealing with a screamer. But perhaps she would have been oblivious anyway. Kvitova was oblivious to a lot of things. She just went out there and played, hit the ball hard and won Wimbledon. Everything else, you could say, is just nonsense and fripperies.
 
#8 ·
And finally:

Cool Kvitova proves a charming champion

Saturday, 2 July 2011

by Kate Battersby

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/articles/2011-07-02/201107021309611862554.html

Some human qualities shine through language barriers. Petra Kvitova's English may not yet quite be the equal of her tennis, but no matter - sweetness is her first language. The 21-year-old smiled and laughed her way through her post-victory news conference - shaking her head in shy disbelief at hearing herself introduced as the 2011 Wimbledon champion - and thoroughly charmed all present.

"It's hard to find words," she said. "I still don't know how I feel. It's still an unbelievable feeling. Maybe I'll accept it after... I don't know... some days. I was so happy at the moment when I won. It's strange."

It must indeed be strange, to have your dreams come true. Told a star was born today, and that there will probably be many Grand Slam titles coming her way, the 21-year-old liked the sound of that. "You think?" she grinned, and then agreed: "Yeah, OK."

It was Kvitova's cool demeanour that marked the pathway to her victory. But how was this so, in her debut Grand Slam final, against an opponent of Sharapova's experience? Kvitova didn't quite know. She slept well last night, she reported, and then tried to treat the greatest morning of her career as ordinary match preparation like any other.

"I was like I am before a normal match," she said. But even she conceded to being pleased with how relaxed she was. "I was surprised how I was feeling on court because I was focused only on each point and each game, and not on the final and the medal. Sometimes my serve wasn't so good, so I had to keep mentally good. I knew I had to be the first one to play hard, and I had to make the points. I did that.

"I like the big matches. I believed I could play very good in the final, and I did play that way. It was about the serve, for sure, and the return. I know that she returns very well, but I knew I could return her serve also. I knew she would make some double faults. On the important points I played well. I returned very well.

"Last year here in the semi-final against Serena Williams, I didn't have many chances to win. Serena played so well. I was young and I didn't think that I could beat her. That's what was different this time. Today I felt I could win."

So what was it like, to stand on the brink of the dream? What was it like when she left her chair at the changeover for the last time, knowing that she was serving for the Championship?

"In the game before, I was thinking 'I have to do it now'," she said. "And then I'm doing it. Then when I had 40-love, I was just going for the point, and I believed in myself."

Her belief, and her ability, made Kvitova the first left-hander to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish since Martina Navratilova in 1990. She spoke with Navratilova afterwards, and also with the last Czech ladies' singles champion here, Jana Novotna, both of whom watched her victory from the Royal Box.

"They were so happy," smiled Kvitova, overcome by the idea that her own idols could be moved by her achievements. "I cried after I met them. It meant a lot to me to speak with them after the final."

There it was - that sweetness again.
 
#10 ·
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/skodadriver-kvitova-makes-fast-progress-to-conquer-sharapova-2306313.html

Skoda-driver Kvitova makes fast progress to conquer Sharapova
...Compare that with Kvitova's upbringing in Fulnek, where her father, a former teacher, is the deputy mayor. Nearly 200 miles east of Prague, the town has a population of just 6,000.

"There is nothing special there," Kvitova said. "We have four tennis courts, one football ground and a castle. Until I was 16 I only played for an hour or an hour-and-a-half after school. I didn't have any sparring partners. I just played with my two brothers and my parents. I didn't think that I could be a tennis player. My father was my coach until I was 16 or 17. My parents then encouraged me to move to Prostejov, where I saw people like Tomas Berdych practising."

Kvitova, who has an apartment in Fulnek, makes the one-hour drive to Prostejov every day in her Skoda. "I don't think I'll buy a new car," she said when asked how she might spend the £1.1m prize money that goes with her Wimbledon win. "I've seen some Skodas here [in Britain]. They are superb!"
 
#11 ·
Similar to the one in the previous post:

Wimbledon 2011: Petra Kvitova greets victory with typical modesty

When asked about her meteoric rise to fame, the Skoda-driving Czech is as unassuming as the small town she grew up in

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/03/wimbledon-2011-petra-kvitova-champion

Kevin Mitchell at Wimbledon

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 July 2011 22.59 BST

Petra Kvitova drives a Skoda and her English comes in considered little lumps, with no artifice. The bright new force in the women's game will let her tennis do the talking and her smile embellish the story of a country girl from the Czech Republic.

She is from a small town near the Polish border, Fulnek, which, she is happy to tell us, "is nothing special, 6,000 people, four tennis courts, one football ground and a castle".

Just your run-of-the mill Moravian village, then – but Kvitova is no run-of-the-mill tennis player. The new Wimbledon champion, who played with an irresistible mix of power, subtlety and intelligence to confound the more graceful but fragile Maria Sharapova on Centre Court on Saturday, is special.

She is 21 and getting better faster than anyone in the game. Within moments of her 6-3, 6-4 win over Sharapova – which she brought to a thumping conclusion with her only ace in an hour and 25 minutes of absorbing tennis – bookmakers had made her favourite to retain her title next year. She cannot wait to come back.

If the women's game is in disarray, Kvitova might be the player to restore order. In a fortnight of mayhem that accounted for the early same-day departure of the Williams sisters, the exit of the world No1, Caroline Wozniacki, and finally, the defeat of the favourite, Sharapova, she rose without fuss from the outside courts to the centre of the game, a splendid, unassuming young champion who appears to have no side, but plenty of side-spin. She has come some way since losing to Serena Williams here last year and dates her real advance from the start of this year.

"I started very well, with a win [in Brisbane, followed quickly by Paris indoors and Madrid]. Last year I was here and I was 62 in the world and now I'm eighth and I won Wimbledon. It's so quick. I don't know why."

Kvitova leaves those judgments to others. She plays with an instinctive lust for hitting a yellow ball that defies glib analysis. She gives the impression, probably legitimate, that there is no premeditation in her strokeplay, that it flows from the moment. Nor is she worrying about her place in history. Asked if she thought she might be in the vanguard of a new era, she said, "I'm not thinking about that. I have no idea."

Nor, believe it or not, had she thought much about her considerable change in circumstances. What emotions did she feel on becoming an instant millionaire? "Nothing. I don't know. I don't have an idea."

Indeed, Kvitova will not be bulldozed into stereotypes. Her Skoda is not a battered old banger but a new one that does not need replacing, as she drives the hour's journey to Fulnek from her flat in Prostejov. These are names and spellings at the centre of the tennis universe. The game has turned east.

Kvitova started in Fulnek with no great dream, another turn against preconceptions. "I didn't think I would play professionally but, when I watched some tennis on the TV, it was Wimbledon," she said. "I watched [Andre] Agassi and [Pete] Sampras and of course [Martina] Navratilova."

Kvitova was only a few months old when her compatriot Navratilova won the last of her nine Wimbledon singles titles – and Navratilova was there to watch her win on Saturday.

"My father was my coach until I was 16 or 17 and then I moved to Prostejov," said Kvitova. "Until I was 16 I only played for an hour or an hour and a half after school. I didn't think that I could be a tennis player. Then when I moved to Prostejov I saw who was practising there – people like Tomas Berdych. My parents encouraged me to move, because I didn't have any sparring partners. I played with my two brothers and my parents. That's it."

If the 21-year-old left-hander is reluctant to carry the whole game on her shoulders, she is happy to celebrate good days for the Czechs. There are nine of them in the women's top 100 and the best of them says: "Sometimes I think about this and I think it's about our parents. We had our problems before and it's from the heart and the parents.

"We do not practise in the same club, the Czech girls, but it's good to know we have so many talented players. We are like family."

Happy days in Fulnek.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Insights from Kotyza (highlighted in red) of how clever Kvitty Girl is :

A star is unveiled: Czech Kvitova tops Sharapova for Wimbledon title

Upstart wins her first Grand Slam title by toppling Manhattan Beach resident in straight sets
By Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press
Posted: 07/03/2011 03:19:21 AM PDT

http://losangeles.pointslocal.com/s...ch-kvitova-tops-sharapova-for-wimbledon-title

WIMBLEDON, England - One might reasonably have expected Petra Kvitova, not Maria Sharapova, to be betrayed by nerves in the Wimbledon final.

This was, after all, Kvitova's first Grand Slam championship match, while Sharapova already owned three major titles, including one from the All England Club. So Kvitova decided to pretend she was heading out on Centre Court to play in the fourth round.

That mindset worked. So, too, did nearly everything Kvitova tried once play began, particularly her big, flat, left-handed groundstrokes that pushed Sharapova back on her heels. In a surprisingly lopsided final, Kvitova beat the higher-seeded, yet shakier, Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 Saturday to win Wimbledon for her first Grand Slam trophy.

"I was surprised how I was feeling on the court," Kvitova said, "because I was focused only on the point and on the game and not on the final."

If there were those who wondered how the eighth-seeded Kvitova would handle the setting and the pressure, her coach did not.

Indeed, David Kotyza had an inkling his new pupil possessed the right stuff to win titles shortly after they began working together about 2 years ago. That's because he was wowed by the several pages of handwritten answers Kvitova supplied for a questionnaire he gave her back then - and has kept to this day. "I was really surprised about how she thinks about tennis, how clever she is. She told me her advantages, disadvantages, what she has

to improve," Kotyza said, then pointed a finger to his temple, adding: "Her brain is a big advantage for this game."

When she was a kid growing up in Fulnek, Czech Republic - population: 6,000 - and practicing an hour or so after school each day, Kvitova didn't count on becoming a professional tennis player. She simply wasn't that good, yet. Clearly, she's a quick study.

Before Wimbledon in 2010, Kvitova's career record on grass was 0-4. She is 16-2 on the slick surface since, including a run to the semifinals here last year before losing to Serena Williams.

At 21, Kvitova is the youngest Wimbledon champion since - you guessed it - Sharapova was 17 in 2004. Kvitova also is the first Czech to win the tournament since Jana Novotna in 1998.

Plus, Kvitova is only the third left-handed woman to win the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. The last was Martina Navratilova, who won her ninth Wimbledon title in 1990, a few months after Kvitova was born.

"She played brave tennis, and she deserved to win. She was by far the better player," said Navratilova, who was born in Czechoslovakia and sat near Novotna in the Royal Box on Saturday. "I don't think this is the only time she'll win here. It's very exciting. A new star."

That last phrase was being uttered by many after Kvitova made the Manhattan Beach resident look ordinary.

Consider: Until Saturday, Sharapova had won all 12 sets she played over the last two weeks. But, as Sharapova's coach Thomas Hogstedt summed up afterward: "One played well. The other didn't play well. Maria didn't play as good as she can."

That was, at least in part, Kvitova's doing.

She compiled 19 winners, most by zipping her heavy forehands and backhands from the baseline, where her 6-foot frame and long arms helped greatly.

"She created offensive opportunities from tough positions on the court," Sharapova said. "Sometimes it's just too good."

Kvitova also broke Sharapova five times, anticipating where serves were headed.

It helped that Sharapova double-faulted six times.

"She performed incredible. Sometimes, when you don't know what to expect and you don't know how you're going to feel, sometimes you play your best, because you have that feeling of nothing to lose," said the fifth-seeded Sharapova, who was playing in a major final for the first time since right shoulder surgery in October 2008. "She went for it, absolutely."

More stunning was the way Sharapova crumpled at key moments. One example: She double-faulted twice in a row to lose serve and fall behind 4-2 in the first set. Kvitova - now 4-1 in finals this year - broke again to begin the second set. The two exchanged four straight breaks in the middle of that set, before Kvitova gathered herself. Ahead 4-3, but trailing 15-30 while serving, Kvitova hit three straight service winners to get to 5-3.
 
#16 · (Edited)
In this USA Today article, none Other than US Fed Cup coach/ESPN analyst (and miss IMF/Sharapova) Mary Joe Fernandez calls Petra the "hardest hitter she's ever seen", and her coach talks about her big match ability, reasons for earlier grass losses, and her relatively late tennis start and more.

Does the MJF quote make up for Chris Evert's and Pam Shriver's awful analysis of Petra's game and chances vs Vica, Masha & Wimby in general on ESPN? Lol


By Douglas Robson, Special for USA TODAY

Posted 2d 9h ago2h 16m ago |

WIMBLEDON, England — Are grass court champions made or born?

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic earns her first Wimbledon title, and her frist Grand Slam title, in her first Grand Slam final appearance.


Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic earns her first Wimbledon title, and her frist Grand Slam title, in her first Grand Slam final appearance.

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic earns her first Wimbledon title, and her frist Grand Slam title, in her first Grand Slam final appearance.

Petra Kvitova, the breakthrough Wimbledon titlist from the Czech Republic, sure looked like a natural in beating Maria Sharapova of Russia 6-3, 6-4 in Saturday's final, blending poise and power for her first Grand Slam title.

The eighth-seeded Kvitova bludgeoned the ball from the backcourt, pounced on returns and hit body blows with her lefty serve in the 85-minute contest. She unleashed her one and only ace on match point.

"She's like the first-strike tennis queen," said Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez. "She hits the ball harder than anyone I've ever seen."
It's easy to forget that Kvitova, 21, lost her first four WTA matches on grass and was winless before her surprising run to last year's semifinals, where she lost to eventual winner Serena Williams.

Was she a quick study? Or was she built for the surface?

Martina Navratilova says when grass was slicker and bounces more irregular, instinct played a bigger role in determining success. But the nine-time Wimbledon singles winner said skills could also be cultivated.

"It's both," said the Czech-born American, who won the last of her titles in 1990 - the year Kvitova was born. "I think the best athletes come through more because they're able to adapt to the bad bounce, to awkward shots, to playing an all around game more than the baseliners. I mean, it's more instinctual in that you don't have as many choices on grass. It's key not to overthink it too much and play by instinct, so maybe you're right. In a roundabout way, it comes to that."

To be sure, power tennis pays off at Wimbledon. Kvitova smacked 19 winners to Sharapova's 10, and committed just one more unforced error (13-12).

"Grass has always rewarded big hitting," says Fernandez, who also comments for ESPN. "That's why the Williams sisters have dominated for so long. (Kvitova) hits hard, flat, stays low, and has the lefty factor to swing opponents wide or hit serves into the body."

In some ways, Kvitova is a Johnny-come-lately.

Most of today's pros are swatting balls for hours well before their 12th birthday under the watchful eyes of eager parents or at tennis academies. Kvitova, who idolized Navratilova, 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 where other top Czech players such as 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych and top-25 player Lucie Safarova developed their games.

The 6-1 player progressed quickly — so quickly she sounded shocked that she had become the third Czech woman after Navratilova and Jana Novotna to own the Venus Rosewater dish five years after taking up the sport in earnest.

"I didn't think that I can win Wimbledon (so soon)," she told a small group of reporters a few hours after her win.

Still, she knew there was something on the lawns of London that suited her game.

She won her first tournament on grass — an International Tennis Federation junior event at Roehampton in 2007 — and the next week reached the last 16 at Wimbledon's junior event.

"I remember when I was serving it was problem for the other players," said Kvitova, "and I played so fast."

Her coach, David Kotyza, explained that Kvitova had the game for grass despite her early stumbles on the pro tour, including back-to-back first-round loses here in 2008-09.

He said Kvitova was young when she lost in 2008 and was coming off an ankle injury when she did the same in 2009.

"The capability was there," Kotyza said.
If she had the game to excel on grass from the get go, she was also a quick study. She proved that by backing up her semifinal showing at the All-England Club last year by reaching the final of the grass-court tune-up at Eastbourne this month.

Kvitova, now 4-1 in finals this year, doesn't fear the big stage. She said Saturday she likes "big matches" and believed she could win Wimbledon.

Kotyza explained that when he started working with her three years ago her game was uneven, but her self-belief was rock solid.

"In mental, she was totally a champion," he said.
The Czech is likely also benefitting from another trend: the homogenization and slowing down of surfaces, which makes it easier for a one-style-fits-all game.

"I don't feel they are playing anymore a specific grass-court type of play," said 2006 Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo, who like Kvitova won her maiden grass court title at Wimbledon.

When France's Mauresmo won, however, she did so by varying the spins and pace off her one-handed backhand and following her serve to the net.

"You see today, they stay back, they don't use slice," she said. "They play very much the same style."

Conchita Martinez, the crafty Spaniard who also varied tempo and spin and grew up on clay, agreed that both nature and nurture can come into play. She said she detested grass at first but kept an open mind.

"It's great if you have an instinct to play," said the 1994 Wimbledon winner. "Someone who hits the ball hard and flat is going to have a better time out there. But you can learn."

MORE: Kvitova conquers Sharapova in women's final
COLUMN: Kvitova emerges as newest big hitter
PHOTOS: The best images from the All England Club
 
#17 · (Edited)
PS Guys:

Lindsay Davenport had said on her Twitter account after the final "Did you guys see Petra? Stunning. It was the first time I was able to see her in person. I can see why people compare her to me. She's definitely the best ball striker out there".

Interesting, since when Lindsay was asked about her during the French Open, she had said "I really don't know much about Petra Kvitova (despite the fact that Martina and Sam Smith of the BBC, two people she works with, both loved Petra at the time)". Lol.
 
#19 ·
Great job on all the articles. Ha, guess Lindsay quickly formed an opinion after seeing Petra in person for the first time.
 
#20 · (Edited)
PS:

US Fed Cup Captain and ESPN Analyst Mary Joe Fernandez, when covering the Wimby women finals, told a story about Petra Kvitova from 2009.

She said when she was Fed Cup captain and playing the Czech Republic a couple of years ago, the coach put in the lower ranked player. Fernandez thought that was odd in such a fierce competition, and after the tournament she went to the coach and asked, "why'd you put that young lady in?". Fernandez said the coach replied "That girl, will be our best Player, She's got a great future".

Fernandez ended by saying "so they knew even back then, as Petra Kvitova shows us today, by being in the Wimbledon final".

True story. If you're in America, you can catch it (the final) on ESPN 3, along with her other 6 Wimby matches.

Mary Jo made the comment at 23.30 running time in the final.
 
#21 ·
PS:

US Fed Cup Captain and ESPN Analyst Mary Joe Fernandez, when covering the Wimby women finals, told a story about Petra Kvitova from several years ago.

She said when she was Fed Cup captain and playing the Czech Republic several years ago, the coach put in a unranked/unknown player. Fernandez thought that was odd in such a fierce competition, and after the tournament she went to the coach and asked, "why'd you put that young lady in?". Fernandez said the coach replied "That girl, will be our best Player, She's our future".

Fernandez ended by saying "so they knew even back then, as Petra Kvitova shows us today, by winning Wimbledon".

True story. If you're in America, you can catch it (the final) on ESPN 3, along with her other 6 Wimby matches.
that should be 09 Fed cup and actually Petra injured her ankle before that round with US, and she lost to her 1st round rival in 11 Wimby Alexa Glatch in straight sets
Later, she withdrew from French Open that year



BTW, did MJF told that story in the pregame show or postgame show? I would like to check that analysis
 
#22 · (Edited)
Hey Reyeszjj

Thanks for the comments and pic.

I'm not sure if she over dramatized her story, she watched another match-then asked or if she got the dates mixed up (since Petra got hurt in 2009 b4 playing the US), then lost to Glatch another year. But she did say that.

To your question, she actually said it during the broadcast, at the 23.30 second mark (23 min, 30 secs).

Enjoy the match.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I thought everyone on Tennis Forum who watched Kvitty's Wimby matches streamed online (since they weren't on TV until the semi-final & final), who knew they were seeing something/someone special, could appreciate this well written article. It takes you back a little doesn't it?

Kvitova - the champion who stole in under the radar
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Photo Titled Kvitova serves up a victory
Kvitova serves up a victory
© AELTC/M.Hangst
Kvitova & Sharapova
© AELTC/T.Hindley
by Kate Battersby

If ever there was a Wimbledon champion who stole in under the radar, it has to be Petra Kvitova. Yet anyone who watched her in the first week here knew that her run to the semi-finals last year had not happened by accident. Nonetheless, on the first day of the Fortnight here, how many fans in a thousand would have named her as their outright favourite for the title? In truth, how many fans in a thousand could have named her at all?


But once seen, once noticed, only the very foolish ignored Kvitova's chances this Wimbledon. Those early rounds made it utterly plain she had the game to win here. Let the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova hog the headlines, that was fine with Kvitova. She just kept going through the first four rounds, shedding few games along the way.


The questions arose in her quarter-final against Tsvetana Pironkova and her semi against Victoria Azarenka - each victory delayed by a hesitant second set where somehow her killer instincts drifted away. She herself had no doubt what the problem was - in each case, she became aware of the prize drawing near, and faltered.


By contrast, Maria Sharapova motored all the way to the final without the loss of a set. And, of course, at the mighty age of 24, she had played in four previous Slam finals and won three of them. Such experience is not essential, but it can hardly be a handicap.


So the question today was how Kvitova would respond to the scale of the occasion. There is a fine line between the innocence, which can allow the greenest competitor to sail through the sternest test, and inexperience, where a young mind is overwhelmed on the vast stage and is completely bewildered.


Sharapova, on the other hand, brought the wisdom of all her 24 years. She knew that time and chances are finite, and that there are never enough championship wins to go round all the players who are capable of winning on talent alone.


In the event, 21-year-old Kvitova found herself at the perfect point of balance somewhere between these two. By all means she tightened up in the second set and, in Sharapova, she was facing a cast-iron competitor whose tenacity and will to win could prise open any weak spot in the Czech's mental game. But today there was none to be found. There were moments in the second set when the match might have turned in the 2004 champion's favour, but Kvitova did not allow it to happen.


She was helped by Sharapova's weakened serve. It gave away fewer double faults than in previous rounds, but always when they came, they seemed to contribute to some crucial moment of haemorrhage - as when she delivered two in succession for the critical break in the first set.


Likewise with her groundstrokes, she was always playing for the lines - spectacular when the shots came off, but constantly risking error. It isn't in Sharapova's game to hold back at such moments. Hence she won just 14% of her second service points. Disastrous. She tried taking the maximum possible time between points for her trademark re-focus but nothing worked. Kvitova was too cool. For the Czech, one mistake did not lead to another.


The biggest test was early in the second set when the two were trading breaks. Kvitova should have put the ball away to secure a key point, but instead sent it right back to Sharapova who lobbed the Czech perfectly. Kvitova could have been crushed by the twin factors of her own misjudgement and the Russian's brilliance, and allowed her back in the match. A little later, she had the easiest forehand at the net for game point, but sent it out to surrender break point. Sharapova capitalised with a killer return to break. It could have played havoc with Kvitova's mindset. But it didn't. Each time, she set the point aside as a lesson learned and approached the next one afresh. She kept bouncing back, repeating the methodical formula all the way to victory.


At the last changeover, Kvitova was out of her chair and on her way to the baseline long before she needed. Some falter at the biggest moments, unable to serve out the match. Not she. Kvitova was eager to meet her destiny. She had three Championship points at her disposal when she opted to deliver her very first ace of the final.


Some fans may not have known the name Petra Kvitova at the start of this Wimbledon, but they do now. And they'll be hearing the name for a long time yet.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Another Well written, informative, personal, incisive, excellent reflection and analysis.

Peter Bodo, Tennis.com Contact RSS Categories Archive
The Company She Keeps 07/02/2011 - 2:28 PM

Petra

LONDON—Some of them arrived more than two weeks ago, to do duty as broadcasters or coaches; others drifted in over the course of the last two weeks, always welcome at Wimbledon, where any former singles quarterfinalist enjoys the privileges of membership in the Last 8 Club.

By the time the women's finalists were determined they were here in force, and present today in the Royal Box. Jan Kodes and Jana Novotna, Martina Navratilova and Helena Sukova, all came to witness—they hoped—the coronation of a new Wimbledon champion to carry on the distinguished tradition of their small nation, the Czech Republic.

As Martina Navratilova said the other day, "I got to thinking now with (Petra) Kvitova the final, a potential winner, she would be the third lefty Czech to win this, with (me) and (Jaroslav) Drobny. Really, if you think about the Czech Republic and Slovakia—Hingis came from there originally—(Ivan) Lendl, myself, Kodes won here in '73. . . It's astonishing. And Berdych was in the finals last year. . . Hana Mandlikova. So many great players came out of a very little country, consistently."

You can now add the name of an extremely shy 21-year-old from the village of Fulnek (population 6,000, plus four tennis courts) to that list of champions, for Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title today, and she did it on the strength of a convincing and not entirely meat-and-potatoes game driven by a superior serve and extreme baseline power.

In the run up to the match, most pundits predicted that most of the friction would be between Kvitova's swerving, biting left-handed serve—a serve that even the icon Navratilova, a nine-time Wimbledon champ, could only have wished to possess—and Sharapova's return. As it turned out, though, the outstanding feature of the final was the way Kvitova won the battle of the baseline, consistently getting the better of Sharapova in the rallies no matter who was serving.

As Sharapova put it after absorbing the 6-3, 6-4 loss, "She was hitting really powerful and hitting, you know, winners from all over the court. She made a defensive shot into an offensive one. And, yeah, you know, just kind of laid on a lot of those shots. I think she was just more aggressive than I was, hit deeper and harder, and got the advantage in the points."

It was an accurate and unflinching summary, but the problem with someone like Kvitova, who's a big young lady (6' 1") with a conspicuous weapon in that left-handed serve, is that it's awful easy to overlook the nuances and subtleties that sometimes play an even much larger role in a match than obvious themes. Take that serve: Kvitova's fastest was the same as Sharapova's, 113 mph, and their average first- and second-serve speeds were identical as well (100 mph and 92 mph, respectively). If Kvitova's serve was a cut above, it was for reasons other than its pace.

Granted, Sharapova hurt her own cause with double faults, particularly in the first set, in which she yielded the break that put Kvitova up for good, 4-2, with back-to-back doubles. But one of the main reasons Kvitova was able to transition from defense to offense and take the initiative—and dictate—in so many rallies was because she did a great job handcuffing Sharapova with serves to the body. I had expected her to rely more heavily on conventional, southpaw stuff—the wide serve and the heavy slice, especially in the ad-court, where a lefthander has such an enormous advantage.

Petra2 But that wide-swinging slice goes to the backhand of a right-hander like Sharapova. Not only is her backhand more reliable than her forehand, but the wider the slice, the more angle it gives Sharapova to nail a down-the-line backhand return winner.

Not too many people win matches against great lefthanders by tagging backhand service-return winners down the line, but by serving down the T so often, and keeping the ball close to Sharapova's body, Kvitova more or less forced Sharapova to keep the returns well within the lines—and we saw how expertly Kvitova dealt with rally balls.

"I knew that I have to be first who is playing hard and who is made the points," Kvitova explained, doing her best in a foreign tongue. "So I tried. It was about the serve, for sure, and the return. I know that she's return very well, but I know that I can return her serve also. . .So I was preparing for the fast play, like with Azarenka."

An attempt to get her to reveal a bit more about her serving strategy was frustrating. I'm not sure if she was incapable of understanding, or merely cagey about, the issue. But when asked if she went to the body quite a bit with the serve, she just smiled and said, "Well, yeah. It's could be."

These X's and Os are fun to chew over, but they only tell—at best—half the story in any match. There's also the mental side of the game, and the matter of how players react to the stresses inherent in a big occasion like a Wimbledon final. On that score also, Kvitova's reactions were impressive—surprisingly so. Although she made that critical break in the first set hold up and broke Sharapova in the first game of the second set, her own inability to hold in the second set all but invited Sharapova, with her greater store of Grand Slam experience, to work her way back into contention. But Kvitova showed real championship mettle, especially when the set seemed about to slip away, after she was broken for 3-3.

In that game, Kvitova made two gruesome errors—one was a thoughtless, cross-court backhand error off a lousy service return that made the score 30-all instead of a comfortable 40-15; the other was a botched cross-court forehand blast off another poor backhand return by Sharapova—a mistake that gave Sharapova a break point, which she secured with a forehand service return winner. You give a blooded Grand Slam final veteran veteran like Sharapova those kinds of breaks and you're apt to find yourself in deep trouble.

Had Kvitova crumbled at that point, those errors would have assumed a magnified significance to haunt Kvitova for a long, long time. Instead, she blanked out any lingering regrets and broke right back. She then made great use of spin and placement to get the critical hold for 5-3. When Sharapova raced through her next service game, you know it was only because Kvitova wanted the ball—she wanted to get on with it, and serve out the match.

Kvitova told us after the match that she read on the Internet that the officials in her small town of Fulnek had set up a big-screen television in the town square, so everyone could gather to watch the Wimbledon match. I doubt it was hard to get the town fathers to check off on the plan, given that Kvitova's father, Jiri, is the deputy mayor. Presumably, the pilsner is flowing freely and Fulnekians are still dancing in the streets as you read this.

The other day, when Kvitova was asked if we had reason to know the name of anyone else from Fulnek, she shrugged and said no. Now, Fulnek is the home of the newest Wimbledon champion. But there's nothing new about that for many a town in a nation that, acre-for-acre, may be the best tennis factory on earth.
 
#28 ·
Comprehensive article, detailing her background and early ITF career up to the day of the Wimby final, with some references to Lindsay Davenport and Petra's potential future thrown in.

Petra Kvitova: The ‘good girl next door’ aims for the stars
Saturday, 02 July 2011 00:00 By Ayo Ositelu Sport - Abroad
E-mail Print
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest
PETRA-

But faces the ultimate challenge in the “red hot” Sharapova in today’s final

HER mannerisms on court, added to a towering figure, reminds one of American tennis legend, former world number one and 1999 Wimbledon Ladies Singles champion, Lindsay Davenport, and in the same vein the Netherlands’ Betty stove, the Ladies Singles runner-up (to Great Britain’s Virginia Wade) at the 1977 Centenary anniversary of the world’s biggest and most prestigious tennis tournament.

If you are busy making comparisons between 21 year-old Petra Kvitova and the aforementioned greats, you are on the right course, as there are numerous aspects of her game which bring back memories of two of the biggest servers and hitters in the rich history of the sport. Kvitova, who like both greats is making an appearance in the Wimbledon final, even reminds tennis historians and researchers of their major weak point, which is mobility about court. Like Davenport and Stove, even though Kvitova covers a lot of ground with their long limbs, her ability to speedily change direction or chase well-implemented drop shots has been observed by many as the most vulnerable aspect of her game.

For the “mathematicals” outthere, (apologies to my dear ‘brother’ Segun Odegbami, who in his hey deys was nicknamed ‘mathematical’ by legendary broadcaster and sports commentator, late Ernest Okonkwo) who are already taking exception to Wimbledon organiser’s arithmetical error in calling this year’s edition its 125th anniversary tournament,. the truth is that Wimbledon did not hold during the first and second world wars. Hence this year’s tournament represents the 125th, and not the 137th edition. Not even Odegbami can ‘dribble’ past that fact.

To be sure, Kvitova is not exactly a household name, at least not yet. But she has lately gained attention of habitual tennis observers in the last couple of years, especially for her repeat berth in the semi-final of Wimbledon, after also reaching in the last four last year, losing at that stage to eventual champion, Serena Williams of the United States. Many are now saying that if last year’s semi-final berth was a fluke, a second consecutive one is gradually becoming a habit.

By reaching the final this time around, and at the expense of world number four ranked player Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, whom she outclassed 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, Kvitova, a leftie, not only became the first left handed player to reach the final since Martina Navratilova featured in her last final in 1994, she also became the first Czech to berth in the final since Jana Novtna in 1998. Novratilova at the time has changed nationality to become an American.

But who is this “new kid on the block” from a country which has produced the likes of former world number one Ivan Lendl, another former world number one. Navratilova, and genuine champions Jana Novotna, Miroslav Mecir, Jan Kodes etc.? who is this girl whom neighbours back home in Gilovec, Czech Republic (where she was born twenty one years ago) still describe as “the good girl next door” because of her simplicity, humility and respectful disposition to everyone in spite of her career blossoming and dominating the headline?

Born in Golovec on March 8, 190, Kvitova, who had not shown signs of being very tall in the early years, but had surprised even her family by shooting towards six feet in her early years, was not exactly a [whiz kid” by today’s standards, as she started playing professionally only five years ago, in 2006 in her home nation tournament at Prostejov, where she won the qualifying tournament but lost in the first round. She then won two ITF tournaments in siege in Hungary, and Valasske Mezirici in the Czech Republic, defeating Dorottya Magas, and Radana Holusova in the finals.

Coached and managed by her father, Jiri from the beginning till now, it has been a gradual development for Kvitova, whose short career has been one of ups and downs, in equal measure. In 2007, she won four ITF (International Tennis Federation ) events in Stuttgart, Germany, and reached two other finals in Zlin, Czech Republic, losing to established pros, Klara Zakopalova 6-4, 6-1, and in Bratislava, in the Slovak Republic, lost to Tatjana Malek 6-2, 7-6 (7). It was in this same year, she played her first Grand Slam Qualifying draw at the 2007 ECM Prague Open, and her first Grand Slam Qualifying draw in the 2007 US Open, losing in the second round in both, but also earned her first win over a top 100 player, Pauline Parmentier.

In 2008, Kvitova qualified for her first WTA Tour main draw in the 2008 Gaz de France Open, where she upset the world number 30, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-2, 6-3, thus earning her first win over a top 50 player, before losing to the now retired Elena Dementieva of Russia in the second round.

At the 2008 Cellular South Cup, as a qualifier, Kvitova earned one of the biggest wins of her career by upsetting former world number one Venus Williams 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, thus earning her first victory over a top 10 player, before losing in the following round. To underscore her inconsistency, she lost in the first rounds of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open at Indian Wells, California, and the ECM Prague Open, and in the second round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.

At the 2008 French Open, playing in her first-ever Grand Slam tournament, she defeated Akiko Morigami of Japan in the first round, Samantha Stosur of Australia in the second, and 12th seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary in the third, before losing to Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the fourth round. She then lost in the first round of Wimbledon 2008 and the 2008 US Open. But in between those two Grand Slam events she was able to reach her first WTA Tour quarter-finals in the 2008 Buda pest Grand Prix, losing to Andreja Klepac 7-6 (2), 6-0.

When, still as a qualifier, she reached the quarter-finals of the 2008 Zurich Open, losing to then world number one Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, it was the first time she was ranked inside the top 50. She ended the year by winning in Monzon, Spain, defeating Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in the final.

After beginning 2009 with a first round loss at the Brisbane International, she however won her first career title at the highest level, defeating Alona Bondarenko, Anastasia Pavlychenkova, Virginia Razzano and Iveta Benesova along the way. In a year in which she was dogged by injuries and had to withdraw from the French Open, and lost in the first round of Wimbledon, only to come back strong to defeat then world number one Dinara Safina of Russia in three sets 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the third round at the US Open. Then ranked world number 72, Kvitova was 71 places lower than Safina at the time. She then reached her second final in the year at the Generali ladies, in Linz where she defeated Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 6-4, 5th seeded Iveta Benesova 6-4, 7-5, 4th seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-final, 2nd seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-2, before losing 6-3, 6-4 to Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in the final.

It was the following year that she seemed to make it a habit to lose to the eventual champion in Tier-one WTA tournaments. At last year’s Australian Open, Kvitova lost to eventual champion Serena Williams. Also at the 2010 Cellular South Cup, she reached the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-3. At Wimbledon, she defeated Sorana Cirstea in the first round, and then upset China’s 23rd Zheng Jie 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 14th seeded Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-0, before also upsetting 3rd seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Demark 6-2, 6-0 in the fourth round to advance to her first Grand Slam Quarter-final, where she beat Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 7-6, 8-6 after saving five match points to rally back from two breaks in the third set (trailing 0-4) to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final, where again, she lost to world number one defending champion and eventual champon, Serena Williams. After that run, she made it to the top 30 in world rankings for the first time.

Kvitova gaining in confidence, began this year by winning her second career WTA tour title at the 2011 Brisbane International Open, by defeating Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 6-3 in the final, after having earned impressive wins over 3rd seed Nadia Petrova of Russia, and 5th seed Anastasia Pavlychenkova also of Russia. With that second title, she achieved a career-high world number 28 ranking.

After reaching and losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open, her strong run earned her the number 8 in world ranking, to become only the fourth Czech female to be ranked among the top 10. She then celebrated her new status by defeating newly-crowned Australian Open champion and world number one, Kim Clijsters 6-4, 6-3 to win her second career title.

Earlier this year, she also led her country’s Fed Cup team to the final round, with semi-final wins over Wickmayer and Flipkens, winnng all of her matches in the earlier rounds.

At the pre-Wimbledon WTA warm-up tournament in Eastbourne, Kvitova, who was seeded eighth, lost in the final to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.

And so, it may not have surprised too many that Kvitova has gone all the way to tomorrow’s final, to face Russia’s former world number one and the 2004 Wimbledon champion, Maria Sharapova, who has literally been on fire throughout this tournament, having not conceded a single set.

Whatever happens in today’s final, it is sure that the tennis world will be seeing much more of this gifted clean-hitter of the ball. If even the Russian will go into the match as a heavy favourite to win, who says another upset cannot occur today?
 
#43 ·
Comprehensive article, detailing her background and early ITF career up to the day of the Wimby final, with some references to Lindsay Davenport and Petra's potential future thrown in.

Petra Kvitova: The ‘good girl next door’ aims for the stars
Saturday, 02 July 2011 00:00 By Ayo Ositelu Sport - Abroad
E-mail Print
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest
PETRA-

(...)

But who is this “new kid on the block” from a country which has produced the likes of former world number one Ivan Lendl, another former world number one. Navratilova, and genuine champions Jana Novotna, Miroslav Mecir, Jan Kodes etc.? who is this girl whom neighbours back home in Gilovec, Czech Republic (where she was born twenty one years ago) still describe as “the good girl next door” because of her simplicity, humility and respectful disposition to everyone in spite of her career blossoming and dominating the headline?

Born in Golovec on March 8, 190, Kvitova, who had not shown signs of being very tall in the early years, but had surprised even her family by shooting towards six feet in her early years, was not exactly a [whiz kid” by today’s standards, as she started playing professionally only five years ago, in 2006 in her home nation tournament at Prostejov, where she won the qualifying tournament but lost in the first round. She then won two ITF tournaments in siege in Hungary, and Valasske Mezirici in the Czech Republic, defeating Dorottya Magas, and Radana Holusova in the finals.

Coached and managed by her father, Jiri from the beginning till now, it has been a gradual development for Kvitova, whose short career has been one of ups and downs, in equal measure. In 2007, she won four ITF (International Tennis Federation ) events in Stuttgart, Germany, and reached two other finals in Zlin, Czech Republic, losing to established pros, Klara Zakopalova 6-4, 6-1, and in Bratislava, in the Slovak Republic, lost to Tatjana Malek 6-2, 7-6 (7). It was in this same year, she played her first Grand Slam Qualifying draw at the 2007 ECM Prague Open, and her first Grand Slam Qualifying draw in the 2007 US Open, losing in the second round in both, but also earned her first win over a top 100 player, Pauline Parmentier.

In 2008, Kvitova qualified for her first WTA Tour main draw in the 2008 Gaz de France Open, where she upset the world number 30, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-2, 6-3, thus earning her first win over a top 50 player, before losing to the now retired Elena Dementieva of Russia in the second round.

At the 2008 Cellular South Cup, as a qualifier, Kvitova earned one of the biggest wins of her career by upsetting former world number one Venus Williams 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, thus earning her first victory over a top 10 player, before losing in the following round. To underscore her inconsistency, she lost in the first rounds of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open at Indian Wells, California, and the ECM Prague Open, and in the second round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.

At the 2008 French Open, playing in her first-ever Grand Slam tournament, she defeated Akiko Morigami of Japan in the first round, Samantha Stosur of Australia in the second, and 12th seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary in the third, before losing to Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the fourth round. She then lost in the first round of Wimbledon 2008 and the 2008 US Open. But in between those two Grand Slam events she was able to reach her first WTA Tour quarter-finals in the 2008 Buda pest Grand Prix, losing to Andreja Klepac 7-6 (2), 6-0.

When, still as a qualifier, she reached the quarter-finals of the 2008 Zurich Open, losing to then world number one Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, it was the first time she was ranked inside the top 50. She ended the year by winning in Monzon, Spain, defeating Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in the final.

After beginning 2009 with a first round loss at the Brisbane International, she however won her first career title at the highest level, defeating Alona Bondarenko, Anastasia Pavlychenkova, Virginia Razzano and Iveta Benesova along the way. In a year in which she was dogged by injuries and had to withdraw from the French Open, and lost in the first round of Wimbledon, only to come back strong to defeat then world number one Dinara Safina of Russia in three sets 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the third round at the US Open. Then ranked world number 72, Kvitova was 71 places lower than Safina at the time. She then reached her second final in the year at the Generali ladies, in Linz where she defeated Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 6-4, 5th seeded Iveta Benesova 6-4, 7-5, 4th seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-final, 2nd seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-2, before losing 6-3, 6-4 to Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in the final.

It was the following year that she seemed to make it a habit to lose to the eventual champion in Tier-one WTA tournaments. At last year’s Australian Open, Kvitova lost to eventual champion Serena Williams. Also at the 2010 Cellular South Cup, she reached the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-3. At Wimbledon, she defeated Sorana Cirstea in the first round, and then upset China’s 23rd Zheng Jie 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 14th seeded Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-0, before also upsetting 3rd seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Demark 6-2, 6-0 in the fourth round to advance to her first Grand Slam Quarter-final, where she beat Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 7-6, 8-6 after saving five match points to rally back from two breaks in the third set (trailing 0-4) to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final, where again, she lost to world number one defending champion and eventual champon, Serena Williams. After that run, she made it to the top 30 in world rankings for the first time.

Kvitova gaining in confidence, began this year by winning her second career WTA tour title at the 2011 Brisbane International Open, by defeating Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 6-3 in the final, after having earned impressive wins over 3rd seed Nadia Petrova of Russia, and 5th seed Anastasia Pavlychenkova also of Russia. With that second title, she achieved a career-high world number 28 ranking.

After reaching and losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open, her strong run earned her the number 8 in world ranking, to become only the fourth Czech female to be ranked among the top 10. She then celebrated her new status by defeating newly-crowned Australian Open champion and world number one, Kim Clijsters 6-4, 6-3 to win her second career title.

Earlier this year, she also led her country’s Fed Cup team to the final round, with semi-final wins over Wickmayer and Flipkens, winnng all of her matches in the earlier rounds.

At the pre-Wimbledon WTA warm-up tournament in Eastbourne, Kvitova, who was seeded eighth, lost in the final to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.

And so, it may not have surprised too many that Kvitova has gone all the way to tomorrow’s final, to face Russia’s former world number one and the 2004 Wimbledon champion, Maria Sharapova, who has literally been on fire throughout this tournament, having not conceded a single set.

Whatever happens in today’s final, it is sure that the tennis world will be seeing much more of this gifted clean-hitter of the ball. If even the Russian will go into the match as a heavy favourite to win, who says another upset cannot occur today?
Well, it´s an interesting article, but there are numerous errors there. Miloslav Mečír comes from Slovakia, not from Czech Republic. Petra was born in Bílovec, not "Gilovec". :) Petra didn´t end up the year 2008 "by winning in Monzon, Spain, defeating Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in the final"; she won in Monzon in April 2008. :)

She didn´t defeat Dinara Safina 4:6, 6:4, 7:5, but 6:4, 2:6, 7:6(5). It was Yanina Wickmayer who defeated Petra 4:6, 6:4, 7:5.

She didn´t get in the top 10 after her run at AO, but after her victory in Madrid.

and so on.
 
#32 ·
Punditry jumping on the bandwagon (apud Arctic Moose):

Kvitova: the next big boss

Sun Jul 03 10:45AM

by Patrick Mouratoglou

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/patrick-mouratoglou/article/2211/

[You can also find this at the Busted Racquet blog in Yahoo! Tennis]

Petra Kvitova clinched the first Grand Slam of her career after dominating Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-4.

Despite the experimented opponent she was facing, it's no big surprise that Kvitova won. I think she is the big champion women tennis has been waiting for.

As I've said in the past, the new generation didn't have enough time to come to maturity at the time when former stars were retiring in the middle of their career (Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis) and when the Williams sisters weren't able to be on the Tour all season long.

What I call a big champion is a pretty rare player, winning consistently on Tour for four, five or even 10 years.

This 2011 Wimbledon winner has everything it takes to be one and should become the next boss of the women tennis.

She's mastering all the shots required by the modern game and has the perfect game in order to win Grand Slams, contrary to Caroline Wozniacki, who hasn't developped enough offensive weapons on order to win a major. Kvitova's weapons are obvious: a powerful, accurate and regular serve, a huge forehand, a backhand getting better and better with every passing season (it has even become another weapon) and outstanding timing which allows her to fire such heavy shots.

A bit like Juan Martin Del Potro on the ATP Tour, she's making up for her lack of speed by sticking to the baseline, playing deep and with power when attacked.

She also reminds me of Lindsay Davenport, who won her first Grand Slam in Wimbledon (in 1999). Of course she's still has big room for improving physically; she has already lost a lot of weight those last 18 months but her high risk kind of game will ask for a constant work on her fitness on the long run.

It's not that surprising to see her triumph because of the amount of confidence she built during recent months by winning a lot of matches with three victories on different surfaces - Brisbane (hard outdoor), Paris (indoor) and Madrid (clay) - and against top 10 players - Clijsters, Li Na, Sam Stosur, Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva. All of this helped her to change her status and to reinforce a confidence that comes naturally to her and never leaves.

I have a very revealing story about her: she played twice against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the end of 2008 and start of 2009 at a time where I was training the Russian. First time Nastya won after saving two match points in Bratislava with a very high level and amazing mental strength from both.

They then played each other in Hobart: Pavlyuchenkova was up 6-1 3-1 and playing brilliantly. Kvitova called her coach at this moment and raised her level in a very astonishing way, without doubting herself for a single second and being very calm. She ended by winning the match 1-6 7-5 6-3 and Pavlyuchenkova couldn't be mad at herself for anything. Kvitova then won the tournament. During this match she was already playing at a top 10 level.

And here is one of the secrets of Petra's success: she knows her abilities and how strong she is so when she's feeling good she just feels like nothing can stop her.

--------------------------

2011 Wimbledon Recap

by Nick Bollettieri on July 5, 2011.

http://nickstennispicks.com/2011/07/05/2011-wimbledon-recap/

[snip]
Petra Kvitova is for real! This girl has the talent to win numerous Grand Slam titles and she just blew Sharapova off the court. She can hit from anywhere and when she strikes the ball (and it goes in) she is very tough to beat. I am looking for big things from this lefty in the future.

Speaking of lefties, people have also talked about whether or not lefties have an advantage and I certainly think they do. You see Nadal on the men’s side and Kvitova on the women’s side and because they are left-handed they are able to serve out wide on the deuce side and into the body on the ad side and it really opens up the court. In today’s game, lefties definitely have a slight advantage.
[snip]
 
Top