Petra Kvitova The No 2 Loses First Match At Charleston

Kristyna Pliskova confidently rallied from a set down to knock out Petra Kvitova, the two-time Wimbledon champion on Wednesday at the WTA’s Volvo Car Open.

The second-seeded Kvitova who hail from the Czech Republic won six of the first seven games and grab the opening set, before Pliskova the countrywoman came back for a 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 win to advance to the round of 16 in the first clay-court in WTA event of the season. Before this victory, Kvitova had won 24 straight matches opposite Czech players. Pliskova is now ranked 77th and she is the identical twin of Karolina Pliskova, now ranked top-10 and was world No. 1. While heading to face Kvitova, the two-time Grand Slam winner, Kristyna got some sisterly advice from Karolina. “The advice she gave me really helped me in the game because she aware of her playing skill better than me,” said Kristyna Pliskova.
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Kvitova to play in Fed Cup Tennis Tournament finale

Petra Kvitova will be seen playing in the forthcoming finale of the Fed Cup tennis tournament. Her availability is a huge boost for her side Czech Republic which has won the title twice in the last 3 years.

Kvitova perhaps would not have been included in the Czech squad if she had gone to the latter stages of the WTA Finals.

But, since she was knocked out from there early, she was available to represent her country and Petr Pala, the skipper of the Czech side, had no hesitation at all in naming her in the 4-member group.

As far as the other finalist Germany is concerned, they have not won the title in the last 22 years, but, they have a great chance to end the drought this time around as they are going to play with a very strong side.

Players like Angelique Kerber and Lisicki will play the singles matches for them and to support them, if needed, Andrea Petkovic is there too.

So, the German side is looking no lesser in terms of capability, at least on paper, but, because of the fact that they have been away from glory for so long, they might feel a little bit of pressure and that might make them crumble. However, if they soak it all in, it will be an interesting tussle.

Czech side seems to be relying on Kvitova’s form. She has to do the most of the work. Basically, she will have to win the tie for her team because the other players that are there in the squad are not the most experienced ones.

Apart from Kvitova, it’s Pliskova who will perhaps be the other singles player for the Czech. She will be making her first appearance in the Fed Cup.  So, it will be unfair to expect too much from her.

Sharipova Expected To Dominate

The Wimbledon Championships is still a few days away, but, the experts have already started predicting who would dominate in the tournament. Maria Sharapova is someone whom the experts are considering as a player to watch out for in the female’s category. The Russian beauty queen has recently won the French Open and she is being backed to be in the same kind of rhythm at All England Club as well despite the fact that the surface over there is going to be completely different from that at Roland Garros.

Another name in the female’s category which almost all the experts are talking about is Serena Williams. The American veteran always remains one of the top contenders for the singles title before the start of any Grand Slam and the Wimbledon this year is no different at all. She is being tipped to reach the latter stages of the tournament again.

Serena would probably go to UK this time around with a bit of an extra motivation. She couldn’t do as well as she was hoping in the French Open and she was clearly hurt by that early loss against Garbine Muguruza. In the interview that she gave to the press right after that match, she had said that she would put more effort on her game after returning back home and would bounce back with a bang.

Another motivation for Serena going into the Wimbledon would be Sharapova’s victory in the final of the French Open. There has always been an intense rivalry between her and the Russian. So, there is no doubt that she would be eager to play at her best over the next few weeks and leave Sharapova behind in the title race at the All England Club.

Serena and Sharapova are currently at the 1^st and the 5^th positions in the World rankings respectively. The latter was actually at no. 8 a while back, but, the glory that she had at Roland Garros helped her jump three places up to 5.

Murrays Mother Stands Behind Decision

The mother of Andy Murray, Mrs. Judy Murray, reckons that her son has taken a good decision by appointing Amelie Mauresmo as his head coach as the Frenchwoman has got the necessary skills to do justice to the post.

Mauresmo’s appointment as Murray’s coach is only on a temporary basis at the moment, but, Judy believes that the former Australian Open and Wimbledon Champion would work impressively during the trial period and would end up getting a permanent job.

Talking to the reporters yesterday, Judy said, “I used to like Amelie a lot when she was an active player and that’s why when Andy told me that he was thinking about hiring her as coach, I 100% backed that.”

“Innovation and grace were two very important parts of Amelie’s game and apart from that, she was a thinking player too. I hope she makes Andy being a little more innovative on the court because that’s the quality that he has been lacking in the recent past. He used to be innovative a while back, but, off late, he has not been doing so.”

“I certainly believe that Amelie would prove to be a good coach. She might become Andy’s permanent coach too.  She is good enough for that.”

According to the information available, Murray has hired Mauresmo only for the next month at this point of time, but, if the pair gets going pretty well and the results are positive for Murray in the Wimbledon Championships, he would reward the Frenchwoman with a long term job.

Murray’s world ranking right now is 5, but, that would certainly go up a little bit if he is able to defend his singles crown at Wimbledon.

Murray has never been the world no. 1 in his career so far.

VANDEWEGHE NEXT

Petra Kvitova will play against the American youngster Coco Vandeweghe in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open which is going on at Indian Wells. The match will take place tomorrow.

Kvitova had finished the last season in fine style, but, she couldn’t bring that momentum into this new season and has been struggling so far.

The 24 years Czech has lost to fairly inexperienced players in a couple of matches this year and has thus dropped in the world rankings.

This tournament is a good opportunity for her to get back in form and her fans would be hoping that she manages to do so.

Kvitova has been one of the most unpredictable players in the professional arena in the last few years. She can be breathtaking on one day and in the very next match, she can put up one of her worst performances ever.

As far as her opponent Vandeweghe is concerned, she is not much known in the world at the moment as she has never been in top 50 in the world rankings. She generally plays in the lower level tournaments.

Vandeweghe’s form hasn’t been too encouraging either this season. In fact, she hasn’t won even a match in 2014 and that must be in the back of her mind. She would be desperate to win and would not let any stone unturned for that.

Vandeweghe might not be as skilled as Kvitova at this stage of her career, but, because of the poor form of the Czech player, she can pull off an upset in tomorrow’s match.

There has been one match played between these two players till date and it’s Kvitova who has won that. She would not mind at all enhancing that lead and making it 2-nil.

HIGHS AND LOWS

Petra Kvitova has seen some good times and bad times in her short career so far. Her fitness has always been a big concern for her, but, she has shown that she knows how to fight her way through it. Even in the last season, she struggled at times with her fitness, but, she bounced back and came up with some fantastic performances in the second half of the season.

Kvitova is pretty optimistic about the upcoming season. She is hoping that she hits top form pretty early in the season and makes her way to the top of the official rankings published by WTA.

Kvitova has won just one Grand Slam in her career so far. She had done that at All England Club a couple of years back. She is currently ranked 6^th in the world.

Yesterday, in one of her interviews, when she was asked how different she was in 2011 when she had achieved glory in the Wimbledon Championships, the Czech player said, “In the last couple of years, a lot of things have happened in my career and I have learnt from them. Now, I know that even if the things are not going your way, you can get better of your opponent if you are mentally tough. So, I am not the same player which I was back in 2011.”

“I still have a lot of things to learn. As a player, it’s important for you to keep learning and keep improving your game.”

Kvitova’s first tournament in the upcoming season will be the Apia International Tennis tournament. It will be played on the hard courts of Sydney, Australia and playing in that tournament will help the Czech player get ready for the Australian Open.