Finally, Kvitova! The Czech enters well-known places. Did she handle a badly played duel in Madrid?

Less than a month ago, Petra Kvitova won the Miami Masters and surprised. Especially herself. Today, the Czech tennis player started the Madrid Open, an elite event she has already won three times. She has had the opportunity to showcase her tennis here twelve times, with only one final result that she has not yet tried.

Petra Kvitova’s connection with clay may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but the Fulnek native certainly has no problem with it. “It’s not my favourite surface, but I think I can play decently on it, especially in Madrid,” she said after the aforementioned event in Florida.

Words that have long since been backed up by action. In the Spanish capital, she lifted the trophy for the winner over her head in 2011, 2015 and 2018.

But let’s take a look at the Czech left-hander’s time in Madrid in other seasons. Twice first round, incidentally, last year, three times second and once dropped out in the eighth round. Quarter-finals were her best in 2019 and 2021, and she finished in the last four in 2014. We’ve already written about her triumphs. Bottom line, the Czech lioness has experienced everything here except losing in the final.

She is seeded ten at this year’s event at the Caja Mágica courts. After a free draw for the first round, she entered the tournament in the second round. Her opponent was German Jula Niemeier, ranked in the top ten of the WTA rankings. Petra Kvitova won the only duel between them last year.

Today’s duel

The Czech entered today’s duel better and took her opponent’s serve in the third game. However, she then did the same and it was clear that Kvitova had a tough task ahead of her.

She had more trouble holding her serve than the German, the set went into a tiebreak and even though the Czech player fought off five match points, it was an unlucky ending. Niemeier was helped by a piggy bank, won another set point and converted it with an emphatic body serve.

The German tennis player grew her wings, allowed herself to stopballs and – most importantly – produced fewer errors. Kvitova’s opponent won the first four games of the second set. Our player went to serve at 0::4 rather motivated to avoid the unpopular canary.

Her serve failed, but this minimalist plus followed in the next game. Petra won her opponent’s serve and that was it. She bids farewell to the tournament after the first game with a score of 6::7, 1::6.

Other Czechs

Today, Thursday 27 April, Czech tennis is still represented three times in the tournament. Linda Fruhvirtová, Markéta Vondroušová and Karolína Muchová will be playing in succession.

The first one will play against the Latvian Ostapenko (22nd in the WTA rankings), Vondroušová will face the Polish Linett (19th in the rankings) and Karolína Muchová will be the favourite against the Romanian Begu (35th in the world). Let’s hope that these matches will make us happier than the one mentioned above.

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