An embarrassing start to the grass season for the Czechs. Kvitova finishes the opening round in Birmingham, Siniakova and Muchova in Berlin. Only Pliskova in the game

There are currently 2 WTA tournaments on grass. One in the German capital and the other in the islands, in Birmingham. In Germany, Karolína Muchová, Plíšková and Katerina Siniakova are playing singles. However, the former faced an insurmountable obstacle in the opening round, which was the Tunisian number one and world number four, Ons Jabeur.

The match was not as clear-cut as the result suggests and even Karolina had her chances. The biggest difference was in the quality of her serve and especially in the use of breakball opportunities. Jabeur dominated all the stats around the serve. 4::0 on aces, more successful 1st serves, points won after her serve, etc. She managed to turn away all 4 break chances of Muchova and took 3/5 herself. So she dominated the match after 6::3 and 6::3 sets.

The opening round was also the last for Katerina Siniakova. She played against Canadian Andreescu. The rankings predicted an even match, as both tennis players are separated by only 6 places and so it happened. The match lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes and there were 30 games. After sets 4::6, 6::4 and 4::6, Katerina’s opponent was the winner.

Karolina Pliskova had a good start to the tournament, although it was a strange match with an even stranger result. Pliskova was seeded four and played Kanepi from Estonia. The Czech lost the opening set 5::7 in the tiebreak and there was no indication that the 2x canary would fly. But it happened. The next 2 sets Pliskova didn’t allow her opponent to play a game and so she moved on after sets 6::7, 6::0 and 6::0. A very unusual course with a happy ending. Ace Queen lived up to her nickname and scored an ace 17 times in the match.

Caroline played another match today and the spider put her in the way of Andreescu, the Siniakova’s overcomer. Pliskova finally got her revenge on her compatriot. Again, it wasn’t a 100% performance, but her serve worked again. The match lasted 2 hours and 13 minutes and offered 17 break points. Karolina hit 12 aces and with a 67% 1st serve success rate she celebrated moving on after sets 6::4, 2::6 and 7::6.

Petra Kvitova and Tereza Martincova were the favourites to take on England. Petra was not completely favored by the draw and faced her ranked neighbor Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil in the 1st round. After an even opening set, which Kvitova lost in a shortened game, a clear set followed for the South American player. From the Czech’s point of view, the match ended 6::7 and 2::6.

Tereza Martincova played her opening match late last night and because the opening set lasted almost an hour, the match was suspended due to darkness and was played today. However, Tereza did not advance to the next stage of the tournament either. After a very close opening set, which ended in a tiebreak 7::9 from the Czech’s point of view, she lost the second set and therefore the whole match.

The start of the grass season looks very uncertain. Currently only Karolina Pliskova is in the game, the rest of the players failed to advance. If we add to that the end of the clay part, it is definitely not a successful season.

After all, the women’s FO has been described as the worst Grand Slam in the last 5 years, from the Czech point of view. A lot of tournaments are still left and let’s hope that everything will turn around and we will see a lot of points gained. Where we won’t see any points, on the other hand, is Wimbledon, which will be played this year exceptionally without awarding ranking points.

Source: Livesport, WTA