Petra Kvitova needs an aggressive start to the 2013 WTA season – Tennis News
Former world number two, Petra Kvitova, was right at the apex of her form at the start of the 2012 WTA season but some niggling injuries have pushed her down several spots in the women’s rankings. She is currently positioned at
number eight in the WTA Premier Rankings, with an urge to regain her former glory in the upcoming season. The Czech number one needs a ballistic start in the 2013 season-opening tournaments to improve her rankings and break into the Top-5.
Aged just 22 at the moment, the 6ft tall diva had a memorable 2011 circuit, winning her first Grand Slam title at the Wimbledon Championships and reaching her career-best ranking of world number two. She was just two wins away
to clinch the world number one spot at 2012 Australian Open but her disappointing loss to Maria Sharapova in the semi-final round crushed her dreams to achieving her greatest target.
Kvitova’s loss in the Australian Open was the beginning of her slump in form and she kept suffering early exits in most of the tournaments to follow. She was the semi-finalist in Stuttgart and quarter-finalist at the Rome Masters.
Her bad patch of form seemed to end when she reached the semi-final of the French Open but again lost to the might of Sharapova. The Czech beauty also failed to defend her title at Wimbledon, losing to the eventual champion, Serena Williams, in the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old left-hander kept her struggle high but couldn’t end her title drought of the season. Her hard work eventually paid off when she outplayed Li Na in the final of the WTA Premier-level event in Montreal. Kvitova reached
the title match at New Haven and outplayed Maria Kirilenko to claim her second championship title of the year. She finished in the fourth round of the US Open Grand Slam championship, followed by initial round exits at Tokyo and Beijing.
Kvitova currently has a narrow margin of ranking points with the world number seven Li Na and the sixth ranked Italian, Sara Errani. A title victory right at the beginning of the 2013 season can propel her to the world number six
rank easily and she needs this to happen before entering the Australian Open.
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