Petra Kvitová's early career

Petra Kvitová's early career

Kvitová at the 2009 China Open
Singles
Season record	141-81 (63.51%)
Calendar titles	2
Year-end ranking	#34 (2010)
Ranking change from previous year	N/A
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2R (2010)
French Open	4R (2008)
Wimbledon	SF (2010)
US Open	4R (2009)
Last updated on: 19 November 2016.

Petra Kvitová first attempted to qualify for her first WTA Tour tournament at the 2007 ECM Prague Open, but she lost in the second round of qualifying to Ekaterina Ivanova. Her first appearance in the main draw of a WTA Tour tournament came at the 2007 Nordea Nordic Light Open, where she lost in the first round to Marta Domachowska in three sets.

After reaching the third round of the girls' tournament of the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, Kvitová tried to qualify for the main draw of the 2007 US Open, but lost in the second round of qualifying to Sandra Klösel. She also lost in the first round of qualifying at the 2008 Australian Open to Nika Ožegović.

Her most significant result before 2011 came at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, where Kvitová, then ranked 62 in the world, reached the semi-finals, having never previously won a professional match on grass. She defeated, in order, Sorana Cîrstea, 2008 semi-finalist Zheng Jie, 2009 quarter-finalist Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and qualifier Kaia Kanepi before being defeated by world number one, defending and eventual champion Serena Williams in the semi-finals.^[1]

Yearly summary 2008-2010

2008: Grand Slam debut and entering the Top 50

Kvitová started to regularly participate on the WTA Tour in 2008. After failing to qualify for the Australian Open, she successfully qualified for the Open Gaz de France, the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup and the Sony Ericsson Open in the first quarter of the year, upsetting Anabel Medina Garrigues and defending champion Venus Williams in the first round of the former two tournaments, respectively.^[2]

Kvitová made her Grand Slam debut at the 2008 French Open, then ranked 93 in the world. She lost in the fourth round to Kaia Kanepi in three sets, having defeated Akiko Morigami, Samantha Stosur and then-world No. 13 Ágnes Szávay en route. Later in the year, she reached the quarter-finals of the 2008 Zurich Open, losing there to Ana Ivanovic; this result catapulted her into the world's top fifty for the first time; she would eventually end the year ranked 44.^[2]

2009: First career title

Kvitová started 2009 with a first round loss to top seed Ana Ivanovic at the Brisbane International.^[3] Following that, she won her first career title at the Moorilla Hobart International, defeating Sally Peers, Alona Bondarenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Virginie Razzano before defeating Fed Cup team-mate and good friend Iveta Benešová in the final.^[4]

Her Australian Open debut, which followed soon after, ended in a heavy loss at the hands of world number 14 Victoria Azarenka in the first round.^[5][6] This started a procession of three consecutive losses, which continued into Open GDF Suez, and Dubai, before she was able to reach the third round at Indian Wells, losing there to the eventual champion, Vera Zvonareva, in straight sets.^[7]

She withdrew from the 2009 French Open due to an ankle injury and lost in the first round of Wimbledon to Maria Kirilenko, those misfortunes conspiring against her to drop to 69 in the world.^[5] At the 2009 US Open, she defeated then-world no. 1 Dinara Safina in the third round in three sets, before losing to eventual semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer in the fourth round. Kvitová was ranked 71 places lower than Safina at the time.^[8] At the Generali Ladies Linz, Kvitová reached her second final of the year, but lost in straight sets to Wickmayer.^[9] She ended the year ranked 62 in the world.

2010: Wimbledon semi-finals and rise up the rankings

Kvitová at the 2010 US Open.

Kvitová's 2010 season did not start well, as she fell in the final round of qualifying to Kirsten Flipkens at the Moorilla Hobart International, where she was the defending champion. At the Australian Open, she fell in the second round to world number one, defending and eventual champion Serena Williams after defeating Jill Craybas in the first.^[10]

Shortly after her poor Australian swing, she reached the semifinals of the 2010 Cellular South Cup, losing there to eventual champion Maria Sharapova.^[11][12] She then reached the second round at both Indian Wells and Miami, losing in the latter tournament to eventual champion Kim Clijsters.^[13]

To kick off the clay court season, Kvitová upset Vera Zvonareva in the first round in Rome, before losing to Andrea Petkovic in the second round. She then qualified for Madrid the following week, but found herself drawn against top three player Caroline Wozniacki, to whom she lost to in straight sets, in the first round. Her poor clay court season culminated in a first round loss to Sophie Ferguson at the French Open.^[14]

Entering Wimbledon later in the year, Kvitová had never won a professional match on grass courts, however, she would defy that record by reaching her first career Grand Slam semi-final at the tournament. Then ranked 62 in the world, she defeated, in order, Sorana Cîrstea, Zheng Jie, Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and Kaia Kanepi before being defeated by world number one, defending and eventual champion Serena Williams in the semi-finals. Her run to the final four guaranteed her a debut in the top 30 in the week starting 5 July 2010.^[1]

Following Wimbledon, she failed to reach another top-level quarter-final for the remainder of the year. Including the Wimbledon semi-final loss to Williams, Kvitová endured a six-match losing streak, during which she had five consecutive first-round losses, before ending it by reaching the third round of the 2010 US Open (where she was seeded for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament, at 25th), where she lost to defending and eventual champion Kim Clijsters; having led 3–0 in the first set, she lost the next twelve games in a row.^[11][15]

Although Kvitová failed to reach any finals in 2010, she ended the year ranked 34 (up 28 places from her 2009 year-end finish) and was recognised as the "WTA Newcomer of the Year".^[16]

Grand Slam performance

Year Tournament Round Result Opponent Score 2008 French Open 1R Win Akiko Morigami 6–4, 6–3 2R Win Samantha Stosur 6–2, 6–1 3R Win Ágnes Szávay 7–6(7–2), 4–6, 6–2 4R Loss Kaia Kanepi 3–6, 6–3, 1–6 Wimbledon 1R Loss Tatiana Perebiynis 4–6, 6–0, 4–6 US Open 1R Loss Virginia Ruano Pascual 7–6(7–3), 4–6, 2–6 2009 Australian Open 1R Loss Victoria Azarenka 2–6, 1–6 Wimbledon 1R Loss Maria Kirilenko 4–6, 4–6 US Open 1R Win Alisa Kleybanova 6–7(4–7), 6–3, 6–2 2R Win Tathiana Garbin 6–1, 6–3 3R Win Dinara Safina 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(7–5) 3R Loss Yanina Wickmayer 6–4, 4–6, 5–7

Year Tournament Round Result Opponent Score 2010 Australian Open 1R Win Jill Craybas 6–1, 7–5 2R Loss Serena Williams 2–6, 1–6 French Open 1R Loss Sophie Ferguson 6–1, 2–6, 2–6 Wimbledon 1R Win Sorana Cîrstea 6–2, 6–2 2R Win Zheng Jie 6–4, 2–6, 6–2 3R Win Victoria Azarenka 7–5, 6–0 4R Win Caroline Wozniacki 6–2, 6–0 QF Win Kaia Kanepi 4–6, 7–6(10–8), 8–6 SF Loss Serena Williams 6–7(5–7), 2–6 US Open 1R Win Lucie Hradecká 6–4, 7–5 2R Win Elena Baltacha 7–6(7–5), 6–3 3R Loss Kim Clijsters 3–6, 0–6

Yearly records

Finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	January 16, 2009	Moorilla Hobart International, Hobart, Australia	Hard	Iveta Benešová	7–5, 6–1
Runner-up	1.	October 18, 2009	Generali Ladies Linz, Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Yanina Wickmayer	3–6, 4–6

ITF Circuit finals

ITF Circuit singles: 9 (7–2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	1 October 2006	Szeged, Hungary	Clay	Dorottya Magas	6–1, 6–4
Winner	2.	17 December 2006	Valašské Meziříčí, Czech Republic	Hard	Radana Holušová	6–3, 6–4
Winner	3.	21 January 2007	Stuttgart, Germany	Hard	Anne Schäfer	6–1, 6–0
Winner	4.	18 February 2007	Prague, Czech Republic	Carpet	Magdaléna Rybáriková	7–5, 7–6(7–2)
Runner-up	1.	17 June 2007	Zlín, Czech Republic	Clay	Klára Zakopalová	4–6, 1–6
Runner-up	2.	28 October 2007	Bratislava, Slovakia	Hard	Tatjana Malek	2–6, 6–7(7–9)
Winner	5.	9 December 2007	Přerov, Czech Republic	Hard	Magdaléna Rybáriková	7–5, 6–3
Winner	6.	16 December 2007	Valašské Meziříčí, Czech Republic	Hard	Ivana Lisjak	6–4, 6–0
Winner	7.	13 April 2008	Monzón, Spain	Hard	Yanina Wickmayer	2–6, 6–4, 7–5

See also

• Petra Kvitová
• Petra Kvitová career statistics

References

External links

• All of Petra Kvitova's 2007 results, Tennis Matchstat
• All of Petra Kvitova's 2008 results, Tennis Matchstat
• All of Petra Kvitova's 2009 results, Tennis Matchstat
• All of Petra Kvitova's 2010 results, Tennis Matchstat