Petra Kvitova beat fellow-Czech Lucie Safarova to advance to her first Aegon Classic Final here in Birmingham. The wildcard Kvitova has never won a grass court title outside of her beloved Wimbledon, having made the 2011 Eastbourne final, losing to Marion Bartoli.
Now Kvitova looks to win her 20th title on Sunday and her first title since the tournament in Zhuhai at the end of the 2016 season, where she beat Elina Svitolina.
It is no surprise to see Kvitova play this way on grass again. The only shock is the level that she is showing in such a short space of time. In Roland Garros, she said she felt empty following her loss to Bethanie Mattek Sands in the second round, but somehow she is now playing ‘no consequence’ tennis with no real targets, while executing on her favourite surface. That is hard to do for any player.
The semi-final against Safarova always felt like it didn’t have much legs and that Kvitova was going to dominate her opponent, because of the lopsided head-to-head and also due to how well Kvitova is playing throughout the week.
The first game saw two aces fly past Safarova in succession and a domineering, trademark forehand to complete a perfect game, and from then on it really looked like normal service would resume. Safarova struggled to push off her serve. That was one issue. But the other problem was being unable to step forward and take the game to one of the most aggressive players on grass. We all know Kvitova plays her best tennis on the front foot and, more often than not, when she steps inside the baseline the point is over in the 90% of the rallies that Kvitova plays in.
Kvitova had her own way like she tends to do on grass in most matches and today was no exception. In mightily quick fashion, Kvitova was 3-0 up in seven minutes and the result looked ominous because of Safarova’s injury to her thigh. As Kvitova rushed into a 6-1 first set, her opponent decided to end the match and start preparing for an important tournament for her at Wimbledon in a week’s time.
In Kvitova’s postmatch press conference she discussed how she felt about her chances at the upcoming Wimbledon. Her assessment was: “I didn’t play six months, and I’m just here to play as many matches as I can, and I’m not really seeing myself as one of them, who can win. For me it doesn’t really matter like who is playing.”
Kvitova maintained, earlier in the week, that she refused to make any drastic racquet changes or adjustments because of how her hand could react to those changes. Today she reacted positively when questioned how her hand was holding up this week: “Well, the hand is good, which is the best news I can have. And I’m not feeling any pain and that’s the best news.”
Kvitova’s calm but realistic approach to the next phase of her career is refreshing to see. She could very well make heavy progress at Wimbledon, but for now she is simply pleased to get four match-wins under her belt and make the Aegon Classic final.
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