Andrea Petkovic

She is the current German number 1. Although she wasn't really known by the tennis community until her fourth round appearance at the US Open in 2010, she has sped up the rankings and has a good chance of reaching the Year End Championships this year in Istanbul. On top of being a huge personality, she is known for her post-match celebration- the Petko Dance. This is Andrea Petkovic!

Name: Andrea Petkovic

Country: Germany

Rank: 11

Coach: Petar Popovic

History: Andrea Petkovic is relatively new to the top tier of women's tennis. Her breakthrough tournament came at the 2010 US Open where she reached the fourth round beating Nadia Petrova along the way. She did even better at the Australian Open the following year where she reached the quarterfinals where she lost to eventual finalist, Li Na. She won her second WTA tournament at Strasbourg where she beat Marion Bartoli in the finals. 

Going into the French Open, she had only lost a point in third round play. Although she wasn't able to maintain that near perfection at Roland Garros, she did reach her second quarterfinal at a major where she was routed by Maria Sharapova 6-0 6-3.

Although she wasn't able to continue her great play through Wimbledon, she will be a threat at the US Open series, and she will be expected to go deep at the US Open. 

She is currently ranked 11 in the world, and she is ranked 10 in the race to the YEC. If she can maintain her level of tennis for the rest of the year, she has a shot at making the YEC in Istanbul, and she can finish the year ranked in the top 10.

Analysis: Andrea Petkovic is a consistent player who likes to stay near the baseline. She has very compact strokes. Although her forehand is her stronger shot, her backhand is more consistent and doesn't break down.

Although Petkovic has enjoyed wins over defensive players such as Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic, she often struggles against the hard hitters of the game such as Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova and Li Na. Although she is a fit player, she can get hit off the court by hard hitters, and her only hope against them is for them to start making mistakes. She has said recently that she is working on getting more power on both wings.

Petkovic's Achilles Heel is her serve. Although she has terrific placement, she lacks the MPH that the rest of the top 20 has. The problem with her serve is that it isn't fluid enough. Her serve has a complicated, jerky motion that prevents her from getting enough racket head speed to make her serve a weapon. Although she can get by with her first serve because of her placement, her second serve is an easy target for offensive players who like to hammer their return of serve. It is quite slow, and it sits up. If she wants to become a contender for majors, she needs to fix her service motion. We all saw how much a good service motion helped Novak Djokovic's game, and a good serve will allow her to be more offensive from the get go so she can work the point with her forehand.

Andrea Petkovic is one of three German players who is rising up the ranks. Although she lacks the firepower of Julia Goerges and Sabine Lisicki, she is probably the most consistent of the three, and she can definitely be a consistent top 10 player and a factor at all the majors.