The question "What's wrong with Petra Kvitova?" popped up again today as the Czech star went to pieces in the Tokyo semifinal after going up 4-0, then 5-1, in her first set against Vera Zvonareva. Zvonareva, reacting to the pressure put on her by Kvitova, couldn't do much of anything for most of that set. But then she broke Kvitova, and after that, the 5th seed's backhand, second serve and confidence began to decrease.
Slowly at first, Kvitova's game unraveled. Zvonareva, having come back from almost certain loss, practically cruised through the first set tiebreak. Then it was effectively over for Kvitova, whose game became a mass of unforced errors. She got a little of her hitting savvy back toward the end, but it was too late. Zvonareva's 7-6, 6-0 win puts her into the Tokyo final.
Her opponent will be Agnieszka Radwanska, who defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
In doubles, top seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond defeated Azarenka and Maria Kirilenko when Azarenka and Kirilenko retired early in the first set. Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta defeated Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.
5 comments:
That was a pretty scary performance from Kvitova... in a good way early on, then quite the opposite later.
Shocking. Not sure what else to call it.
I am not sure why we are all shocked by Petra. This has been her MO for as long as I have been watching her. A few years ago when I saw her in the draw at the AO against Serena I was scared for ReRe because I knew what Petra's potential was. I was a bit dumbfounded by her performance. On her best days she is to be feared and she is as tough as they come, but for some reason her game just goes away with no discernible reason. I don't know whether she is having some confidence issues or is feeling the pressure of being a GS champion from whom much is expected or if she is expecting more from herself and found it lacking but something needs to be done because these losses are just mind-boggling right now.
I'm stunned because she really has "settled" her game some and is more thoughtful on the court that she was in a couple of years ago. She still plays high-percentage tennis, but I thought that by now, she would be more in charge of her game. That's going to require her to slow things down a bit.
I don't know what's causing this--it's too easy to stand back and guess, so I won't. I just want it to stop!
That was a pretty scary performance from Kvitova... in a good way early on, then quite the opposite later.
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