Petra Kvitova captures Birmingham title with style defeating Ash Barty

Some players facing obstacles may become weaker, while others get superior emotional and physical strength. Petra Kvitova seems to grow stronger.

It was December of last year when Petra Kvitova was attacked by an intruder in her home, slicing her left (playing) hand; it was purely devastating.

But fighting back and after hours of surgery and rehabilitation, Kvitova was brought back to this spot of continuing to play the game she loves.

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"“This victory is for my team and fans to say thank you for being with me in the tough times. We didn’t know if I would play again let alone win a trophy so this is an extra special moment…” Petra said on social media."

The first match was at Roland Garros, weeks ago where she had her re-entry onto the courts playing Julia Boserup at the opening round. Petra won 6-3, 6-2 with her strong serve and early breaks and strategic basics, she was ‘on point’ to win decently.

She was nervous on two accounts. One is that it was her first time back and she didn’t know how her hand would react to the pressure of playing tennis again. The second nervous issue was if she could play adequately to win.

"Kvitova conquered it all and after the match said with a broad smile “It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m really glad that we made the decision I would play here…thank you very much guys, I love you…”"

She’d mentioned that her doctors said the moment she gets pains in her hand she had to stop, but those ‘warning pains’ never happened.

"Petra Kvitova remarked reassured that “The hand is good…which, I am not feeling any pain, and that’s the best news”."

The second round was with Bethanie Mattek-Sands who not only is the ‘queen of women’s doubles’ but has a good resume with her singles game too. Kvitova at one point blew a shot and in a fit of anger, threw her racket down, something she said her father didn’t like her to do.

"She had said “I was mad…I mean disappointed for sure. I came here to win matches. The fairy tale ended…”"

Mattek-Sands was the stronger one in that round and hadn’t won a match in the main draw in her last five Grand Slam events. She was gutsy and sent Kvitova packing it in after the second round.

The grass season was here with Kvitova now ranked no. 15 and receiving a wildcard to enter Birmingham because of her inability to play. Naomi Broady was her first opponent who she overtook and stormed the court winning 6-2, 6-2. The second round was a bit more challenging as she faced France’s Kristina Mladenovic where the rallies were significant and each had broken the others’ serves, but Kvitova wouldn’t be denied so she’d stun Mladenovic with routine strategies to win the tiebreaker and her second round 6-4, 7-6.

The third round was Lucie Safarova. Kvitova ruled the first round 6-1, but it was Safarova who was ailing and had to retire with a leg injury at the first game of the second set. Kvitova got off easy but the final was the most challenging to come when she faced Australia’s Ashleigh Barty.

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Barty had taken a two-year hiatus from tennis to play Cricket but she also was a doubles specialist, ranked no. 77 and never made it to singles at Birmingham. She also wanted the title badly. Barty was the aggressor, winning the first set. The second set Kvitova had taken more control, rolling off bunches of winners as Barty’s unforced errors were piling up.

Nervousness creeped in but Kvitova accomplished a winning second set and while becoming more consistent, but meanwhile Barty’s game was unravelling. It wasn’t long before Kvitova had won the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and the title.

"Petra had said of her game with Barty that “It was nice to lose the first set, and that I had to fight for the second and for the third…” Kvitova was relieved and smiled sweetly saying “I could not have imagined a better comeback than I am having now”."

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