For\u00a0most of February this year Dominika Cibulkova was ranked #66\u00a0in the world. Hampered by an injury for five months of 2015 her ranking had suffered badly. Eight months later and the Slovakian is up to a career high eighth in the world and on the cusp of making the Tour Finals in Singapore. In a year\u00a0where tennis has been searching for positive\u00a0narratives, how is it that her marvellous rise has gone\u00a0largely unnoticed?<\/p>\n
Last weekend Dominika Cibulkova competed in her second tier\u00a0one level WTA final of the year in Wuhan. Greeting her on the other side of the net was a formidable looking Petra Kvitova. Formidable was exactly what she\u00a0was. The former Wimbledon champion battered Cibulkova in two brief sets. Nevertheless, the fact that Cibulkova was in the final of a WTA Premier 5 event illustrates\u00a0her improvement this year.<\/p>\n
Advancement to\u00a0WTA finals\u00a0has been a regular occurrence this season. The Slovakian has reached five, with at least one on\u00a0all three major surfaces. In May she reached her first ever Premier Mandatory final in Madrid. Her runner-up spot there was sandwiched between titles in Katowice and Eastbourne.\u00a0The remaining\u00a0final\u00a0triggered her return to the top\u00a0#50 when she lost to Sloane Stephens in Acapulco in February. It comes as no great shock then to see her with a single digit number next to her name in the WTA rankings for the first time in her career.<\/p>\n
Given the frequency of her WTA final appearances this year it is bizarre how little media attention she has received. Madison Keys, the player currently ranked above Cibulkova, has won two less finals. Garbine Muguruza, Agnieszka Radwanska, Simona Halep and Svetlana Kuznetsova, all\u00a0ranked above Cibulkova, have also reached less finals this year. In fact, the only player to have made more is Angelique Kerber. Why is it then that those five names are more well-known and freely\u00a0discussed than the Slovakian?<\/p>\n
Perhaps the biggest problem she faces is that she is still seeking that mainstream breakthrough trophy. It is\u00a0one thing to win WTA events in Katowice and Eastbourne but to achieve global recognition she needs a Grand Slam title or at the\u00a0very least a Premier Mandatory. She does have a Grand Slam runner-up trophy in the cabinet. In 2014 she lost to Li Na in the Australian Open final. Her latest loss in the Wuhan final means she now has four final defeats at Grand Slam and WTA tier one level.<\/p>\n
Her record in those finals\u00a0is disappointing at best. Across the four she has won just seventeen games, failing to win a set. The problem with tennis is that, with it’s multitude of stars, you have to be winning big titles to stand out. Instead, Cibulkova is\u00a0suffering heavy defeats in finals, making her forgettable to your average tennis fan.<\/p>\n
A further issue in the current WTA climate is that she is a bit of a floater in generational terms. The top ten\u00a0predominantly consists\u00a0of two groups; established top five regulars and dangerous prospects. Serena Williams, Angelique Kerber,\u00a0Simona Halep and Agnieszka Radwanska largely make up the former. The latter consists of Karolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza and Madison Keys. These are the two groups which garner the most media attention either through their success and longevity or their future hype.<\/p>\n
Dominika Cibulkova meanwhile falls in a similar band to Carla Suarez Navarro. Unquestionably talented, consistently seeded at slams, but majorless and less commercially recognisable. What separates the two on a more memorable basis is their technical skills. The Spaniard’s elegant one-handed backhand easily distinguishes her from the rest of the WTA tour. Meanwhile Cibulkova’s style is more mainstream. Her offensive\u00a0baseline style built around speed and\u00a0agility is solid but conventional. Whilst undeniably effective in it’s own right it is forgettable among the swarm of similar WTA styles.<\/p>\n
These factors combine to condemn Dominika Cibulkova to the second rung of tennis stardom. The potential is there. She’s reached\u00a0big finals and\u00a0is currently\u00a0performing somewhere close to her peak. Yet at the moment she is simply not memorable enough. The reason she is often overlooked is that, despite her ranking, she is yet to fully\u00a0convince that she can become a Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n
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