Petra Kvitova

With her victory at Wimbledon, Petra Kvitova is the only member of Generation Suck who has won a major. Although she only started to make a name for herself at Wimbledon 2010, in a year, she's risen from being 62nd in the world to being ranked 7th in the world and 2nd in the race to the YEC.

Name: Petra Kvitova

Country: Czech Republic

Rank: 7


History: Although many people would cite her run to the Wimbledon semis last year as what put her on the tennis map, the first major she did well at was the 2008 French Open where she reached the round of 16. Her first huge victory came in the third round of the US Open where she defeated the then number one Dinara Safina in three sets. Although she lost to Yanina Wickmayer in the next round, she established herself again as a player to watch out for.

Until Wimbledon, Kvitova had a bad 2010. She lost in the second round of the Australian Open and the first round of Roland Garros. However, she had an amazing Wimbledon. She reached the semifinals before losing to Serena Williams in two tight sets. However, after Wimbledon, she went on a six match losing streak that lasted until the US Open where she reached the third round.

In 2011, she won Brisbane defeating Andrea Petkovic in the finals. At the Australian Open, she defeated crowd favorite Sam Stosur as well as former top ten player Flavia Pennetta before bowing out to Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals.

Shortly after the Australian Open, she won her second title of the year at Paris where she defeated Kim Clijsters. During the clay season, she won Madrid and broke into the top 10.

Going into the French Open, she was my pick to win the title. She reached the fourth round and led Li Na by 3-0 in the deciding set before choking. She continued her good form through Eastbourne where she succumbed to windy conditions, herself and Marion Bartoli in the finals.

At Wimbledon, she breezed through the first four rounds; she won three of her four first matches in less than an hour. (Her match against Anne Keothavong lasted an hour and five minutes.) She showed her first signs of nerves in her quarterfinal match against Tsvetana Pironkova where she lost the second set. The same thing happened against Victoria Azarenka in the semis. However, she was able to stave off most of the nerves in her final against Maria Sharapova. She won her first Wimbledon title 6-4 6-3. By virtue of winning Wimbledon, she reached a career high rank of seven, and she is currently second in the race to the WTA Championships meaning that there is a possibility of her ending the year in the top 5 provided she doesn't have another downward spiral going into the US Open.


Analysis: Petra Kvitova is probably the hardest hitter on tour. To give you an idea of the magnitude of her groundstrokes, in the Wimbledon final, she was hitting her shots on average more than five MPH faster than Sharapova was. She hits extremely flat off of both sides, and she incorporates a slice backhand from time to time. When she is in the zone, she can defeat anyone except for possibly an in-form Serena Williams. When she is on, she paints the lines with effortless power.

However, the problems come when she isn't in the zone. Because she hits so flat, she gives herself little margin to hit her shots. During her rough periods, she tends to spray a lot of balls wide and long. When she is off, she doesn't really have a plan-B to get her through her weak periods. She can often choke away sets when she is off. This was evident at Wimbledon during her quarterfinal and semifinal matches where she dominated the first set, choked away the second set and came back strong and won the third set. When she chokes, her forehand breaks down. Her forehand is the stronger of her groundstrokes. However, her backhand is a solid shot as well, and it rarely breaks down.

Kvitova has a great serve. She can hit serves in the high 110 range. Her signature serve is her slice serve out wide from the ad court. Being a lefty, her slice normally goes to her opponent's backhand which is the wing with less reach. Furthermore, because her slice serve out wide is so threatening, she can hit fast serves down the T for easy aces.

Kvitova is working on her netplay as well. Growing up, her hero was Martina Navratilova, an excellent player at net. At Wimbledon, Kvitova showed some amazing stab volley winners that were reminiscent of her hero. In this age of baseline ball bashing, it's nice to see a strong player who can actually work the net.

Petra Kvitova's two weaknesses are her speed and her mental strength. Although it is quite difficult to do so, once you get Kvitova on the run, she becomes a much more manageable player. Luckily, she can usually hit her opponents off the court before they can even think about making her run. As for her mental strength, I can only assume that it will improve as she racks up more and more big wins and gains confidence.