Champions of 2011: Petra Kvitová –
Wimbledon Championships Women’s Singles
Standing at six feet tall Petra Kvitova was born on the 8th of March, 1990 and was introduced to tennis by her father, who was a school teacher. After years of sharpening her skills as a teenager, she entered the professional
field when her coach persuaded her in 2006. She played her first events as a junior player on the ITF circuit and won two singles titles.
She played her first WTA main draw event at Stockholm in Sweden and fell short in the first round in 2007. However, she won four singles titles on the ITF circuit the same year.
She entered the lime light in 2008 when she made her top 100 debut on April 14 and then further moved into the top 50 after she became a quarterfinalist at Budapest and Zurich. During 2009, she won her first WTA title at Hobart
by conquering Iveta Benesova in the final match and was a runner-up at Linz.
By 2010, Kvitova had made it into the top 40 rankings for the first time. She was a semi finalist at Memphis and then went on to reaching the semi finals at Wimbledon Championships but alas her victory was cut short by Serena Williams.
Nevertheless, in January 2011, Kvitova won her second WTA title at Brisbane and defeated many famous names such as Nadia Petrova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, last but not the least, Andrea Petkovic in the title match. She was also
a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open and her success story was put to an end by Vera Zvonareva.
Kvitova clinched her third WTA title in Paris by defeating the then world number one Kim Clijsters in straight sets. Moreover, she also clogged her fourth WTA title on clay courts of Madrid in Spain by defeating French Open Champion
Li Na to an en-route victory by ousting Victoria Azarenka in the final. In addition, she also accomplished her fifth WTA title at the Generali Ladies Linz Open in Austria where she trounced seventh seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.
Although her runs in 2011 were progressive, she reached the peak of her form at Wimbledon Championships. Kvitova had taken part in the third Grand Slam for the first time during 2008 but she saw an early round exit and in 2009,
she lost the first round to Maria Kirilenko. However in 2010 she managed to reach the semi finals by defeating Estonian Kaia Kanepi in the quarterfinals but her winning streak was put to an end by Serena Williams.
During 2011 Kvitova became an unstoppable force and went on to clench the title. Even though, the first two rounds at Wimbledon were easy victories in the third round she f aced then world number 29 Roberta Vinci and defeated her
in straight sets to land into the fourth where she overpowered the nineteenth seeded Yanina Wickmayer.
Quarterfinals saw her thrash Tsvetana Pironkova and she jumped into the semi-finals where she shocked Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. Moreover, during the final match she stunned fifth seeded Russian Maria Sharapova to become Wimbledon
Champion.
This year proved very fruitful for Kvitova and she not only jumped in the WTA rankings but also won five WTA titles. She achieved her career high ranking of world number three and is still currently ranked at the same position.
Kvitova also became the sixth Czech player ever to reach top ten after Maria Navratilova, Hana Mandlikova, Helena Sukova, Jana Novotna, and Nicole Vaidisova. Last but not the least, she was awarded ‘The Newcomer of the Year’ accolade in 2020.
Tags: