Petra Kvitova: ‘I didn’t Expect to come here and winning the title’ after Birmingham Title Defence

Petra Kvitova became the first person to defend the Birmingham title since 2005 as she progressively improved her level and raised her game to defeat the 2009 Birmingham champion Magdalena Rybarikova in a tough three-sets win, 4-6 6-1 6-2.

It was definitely a rather slow start for the defending champion, who started the match rather nervous and tentative in her groundstrokes, and that showed on the scoreline as Rybarikova broke to love to take a slender advantage at 2-1 in the first set. Kvitova was still trying to find her game and try to find the right serving standards that she had maintained for a lot of the week, but it took a whole set of tennis for the Czech to really gain a foothold in the match. Rybarikova was defending her second serve far better than Kvitova, who won just 17% of her second serve points in the first set and it was looking to be a glaring weakness, but the fortunes of Kvitova changed after the first game of the 2nd set.

At the beginning of the 2nd set, Rybarikova played some fine tennis, showing off her grass court credentials when she took a brief 0-30 lead on Kvitova’s serve, but missing out on a potential set and a break lead cost her dearly as she looked to keep the momentum rolling from the first set. The challenge that stood in front of Kvitova was not a simple one by any means. The two-time Wimbledon champion put together a run of 6 of the next 7 games against Rybarikova, but she was being made to work hard for points and was not getting the cheap points on serve that she sometimes is accustomed to. The scoreline showed a heavy 2nd set scoreline, but there were plenty of close games that could have gone either way and Kvitova sensed that Rybarikova was not too far away in terms of level.

The first three games of the 3rd set were essentially Kvitova’s best passage of play of the whole match. She never let up in terms of the depth she was able to get on the ball, but she made sure that she took the net away from Rybarikova and took advantage of the aggressive ball-strike that set up her points in the forecourt. The Czech had a brief moment where she lost serve for 3-1 in a tough three-deuce game, but she quickly put it right in the next game and did not look back. Rybarikova fought hard, but as the match got deeper in the 3rd set, her court positioning got deeper and deeper and that was because of the power and depth that Kvitova kept up in the decider. Rybarikova had won some big matches, beating some top players including Karolina Pliskova and Barbora Strycova, but the serving prowess she can show on a grass-court was put under a bit of an examination in the latter stages of the match as Kvitova did a commendable job at applying prssure on the return and displaying brave grass-court tennis with power and stability on show off both wings.

Ultimately, Kvitova progressively got better set by set. She did not dominate with her usually superior grass-court game, but she understood that when she takes to a grass-court she has the ability to problem-solve her way to a title on any given day. This was a prime example of that.

Rybarikova rued some missed chances and poor serving by her standards as to why she did not quite come up with the victory today, but also credited the improvement in level from Kvitova to turn the match around.

“No, I mean, definitely not. Because the first set I think she did couple of mistakes and I use in my set and I managed to close that set. But then she definitely improved. Especially on the returns, she improved a lot. I had so much pressure suddenly that I had to serve well. It didn’t work. My serve today was around 50%, which is not the best against such a great player. You have to serve it out if you want to win this match. That was the thing I was missing definitely, my serve today.”

“I think it was more about my serve. I had so much second serves. Against such a great opponent, you cannot have so much second serves. She’s going to use it and take advantage and she’s going to kill you. I had also second serves because I had so much also pressure from the first serve. But again it was because of her. She put so much pressure on me.”

Kvitova discussed what was key in her win today and analysed all three sets in her post-match press conference:

“Obviously, when I started the match, it was fine. But then I hit, like, terrible service game. I missed, like, four shots in a row, which is not good to play Magda on the grass. She’s playing well on it. I really fought back to get the break back.

Then she hit unbelievable to break me again. And it was tough to win the first set. I had chances, but she was little bit better in that. I tried probably to be a little bit more patient, not to, like, trying to hit a winner from the first shot, which it’s pretty difficult. I had to wait a little bit. In the end, I fought really doing physically well. We were both a little bit tired. I found my legs. I saw a little bit that she has a lot as well. Well, you can only imaging this physically toughness on the grass, you are serving and returning. Obviously with Magda, you need to do a lot. We had great rallies. You have to go forward. When you push her, you have to go for the volleys, which I did then. I think I was just a little bit more patient. The important thing was that I break her in the first service game in the second set.”

Kvitova’s game really started at a high level at the beginning of the tournament against Wimbledon semi-finalist Johanna Konta and she managed to keep that level high enough to sail her way through to another title win in Birmingham. She put forward the difference in feeling to last year’s title triumph:

“I think it’s not really same, for sure. Last year was kind of different, much more difficult by the mental side. I really enjoyed the time here last year. I didn’t really expect to win here. I just played match by match, being very happy to be on the grass and the tennis court. It was kind of little bit — not little bit, it was different compared to this time for sure. But not even this time, I didn’t expect to come here and winning the title. For me I’m surprised. But on the other hand, I felt good on the court from the first rounds.”

This is a huge win for Kvitova and it really emphasises her measure of consistency throughout the 2018 season. This is just the second title she has managed to defend during her illustrious career, the first title she defended was the Connecticut Open in 2014 and she betters her record this season of being undefeated when she gets into the quarter-final, semi-final and final stage of a tournament in 2018. She is 15-0 when she gets to those stages of a tournament at any level during this season and has won the last seven finals she has competed in, which earmarks how she can put her own stamp on a match when the matches matter, the games matter and the points matter most.

The Czech plays Eastbourne next week, but the main goal will be hitting her highest level at Wimbledon. The tournament she loves so dearly. Since her return to tennis, she hasn’t played her best tennis at the majors, but on the other hand, has improved her consistency. Kvitova had her own answer to her difficulties at majors at present:

“The reason probably is I want it too much. This probably the explanation. In Melbourne, it was kind of different story because I was sick and I didn’t really hit courts before. I didn’t practice for, like, two weeks. It was difficult physically to be in the level I wanted. French Open I think was pretty close. It was very sad for me to lose in two tiebreakers which took me a while to get over it in time. But I’m here again. It wasn’t the end of the world. As I said, doesn’t matter what happen in Wimbledon. I’m already pleased with this part of the season. I couldn’t imagine to have five titles this time of the year, so I’m pretty happy already.”

It is a very different feeling to last year’s Birmingham title win. Last year, Kvitova was just content to be playing, to be competing and to be doing what she loves and it felt like a bit of a miracle that she pulled off the title victory last year, but now this is about Kvitova pushing her game to levels she hasn’t before and as the player who is leading the tour in terms of match wins (37), she is definitely doing just that.

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