#PetraKvitova’s inspirational story continues to impress everyone around the globe as the Czech defied the odds and continued to rise in the rankings amidst a life-threatening home attack back in 2016. Barely a year after her full recovery, Kvitova ended 2018 with a tour-leading five WTA singles titles alongside a return into the world’s top-five.
Kvitova owns an impressive 47-17 (.734) win-loss record throughout the year, clinching five titles across three different surfaces (hard, clay, grass) and both indoors and outdoors, leading the tour in this category. Notably, the two-time Major champion is the only player to claim titles on all surfaces this year. She also claimed seven top-10 wins although she was unable to create a breakthrough at the Major tournaments, falling before the second week on all four occasions.
High Points of the Season
Kvitova’s 15-match winning streak started at the St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy, where she entered using a wildcard after a disastrous start to 2018. She received a fairly tough draw but managed to manoeuvre her way through; thrashing seventh seed Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-0 in the opening round before stunning world number six Jelena Ostapenko with the same scoreline. Beating fellow hard-hitter Julia Goerges in the last four, Kvitova strolled past the resurgent Kristina Mladenovic in a one-sided final to claim her first WTA title of the year.
When Kvitova found her groove, she can be said to be unstoppable, literally. She led the Czech Republic to a terrific victory over Switzerland in the first round of the Fed Cup World Group competition and entered the Qatar Total Open in scaringly good form. She beat rival Agnieszka Radwanska and earned four consecutive top-10 wins over Elina Svitolina, Julia Goerges, newly-crowned Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki, and fourth-ranked Garbine Muguruza to claim the Doha title. This impressive run pushed Kvitova’s ranking back into the top-10 despite being ranked 21st before the week.
The two-time Major champion was invincible in the Fed Cup, clinching consecutive wins over Julia Goerges and Angelique Kerber with the loss of just nine combined games. Her groundbreaking performances led the Czech Republic into yet another final. However, she fell to Kerber in a repeat of their clash a couple of days later in the exact same arena for the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
A 13-match winning streak for Kvitova followed. She competed in her home tournament at the J&T Banka Prague Open and stormed to claim the title amidst some tough challenge from Mihaela Buzarnescu in a tightly-contested final. The Czech then steered past Daria Kasatkina and Karolina Pliskova and returned into the Mutua Madrid Open. Going up against Kiki Bertens, who is dubbed as the queen of clay courts, Kvitova had to dig deep and prevail in the high-quality encounter after nearly three hours of play. She became the first woman to claim the Madrid title on three different occasions.
Grass has always proved to be Kvitova’s haven — as seen through her two Wimbledon titles. 2018 was no different, with Kvitova getting by a tricky draw to hoist her fifth WTA title of the year at the Nature Valley Classic. She defeated home favourite and former top-10 player Johanna Konta in straight sets before ousting Julia Goerges and defeating Magdalena Rybarikova in the final.
Kvitova’s best win in the US this year is arguably her three-set thriller against Serena Williams at the Western and Southern Open. The Czech was handed the worst draw possible, with the 23-time Major champion waiting in her first match of the tournament having received a bye. Despite so, Kvitova triumphed over the American in three gruelling sets, before going on to beat both Kristina Mladenovic and Elise Mertens to make the semifinals. This run brought her back into the world’s top-five for the first time since 2015.
Low Points of the Season
Kvitova had a disastrous start to the new season, falling to the dangerous qualifier Camila Giorgi in the second round of the Apia International Sydney. She looked to achieve much more at the Australian Open but was handed yet another tricky draw. Kvitova was drawn to face former top-10 player Andrea Petkovic, and the extreme heat conditions took a toll on her body as the Czech was conquered 6-8 in a thrilling final set.
After a stellar run which saw Kvitova earning a 14-match winning streak entering the BNP Paribas Open, the two-time Wimbledon champion looked to be running out of steam and her marathon win over Yulia Putintseva already hinted about a possible fatigue. The inevitable loss soon followed as the tired Kvitova fell to a quick but surprising defeat against teenage sensation Amanda Anisimova in straight sets.
Kvitova never looked the same after suffering her first defeat in 16 matches. After getting past the hard-hitting Aryna Sabalenka and the solid Sofia Kenin, the Czech was defeated by Jelena Ostapenko in the fourth round of the Miami Open but despite her loss, she still managed to keep her place inside the top-10.
Kvitova’s clay season got off to a poor start as her debut at the Volvo Car Open ended up in a loss. Her game was not clicking well and errors were spraying from everywhere, leading to a cause for concern towards Kvitova’s form. Fortunately, an abundance of success on red clay followed.
Kvitova was able to flourish at the WTA tournaments, but never once translated her success to the major tournaments this year. She fell to a disappointing 6-7, 6-7 loss to an inspired Anett Kontaveit in the third round of the French Open, despite having multiple opportunities in both sets.
A heartbreaking loss came in the opening round of Wimbledon, where Kvitova came into the tournament being the heavy favourite to hoist her third Venus Rosewater Dish. She was stunned by the unheralded Aliaksandra Sasnovich at the first hurdle, and that was labelled by many pundits as the biggest upset of the year.
Unable to play at a consistent level throughout the season, poor performances came from Kvitova during the US Open Series. She was upset by world number 18 Kiki Bertens in the third round of the Rogers Cup, winning just five games in the process before she lost to the same opponent in the following week at the Western and Southern Open.
A shoulder injury forced Kvitova to retire in her quarterfinal match at the Connecticut Open against Carla Suarez Navarro, although it was probably just an injury precaution before the final Major of the year. After her loss to the in-form Aryna Sabalenka at the US Open, 2018 was the first year in which Kvitova failed to make the second week of a Grand Slam since 2007 when she had not made her debut appearance in the main draw of a Major yet.
The latter half of the year could be considered a huge disappointment for Kvitova, whose expectations certainly raised after claiming five WTA titles. She struggled throughout the Asian swing; falling to a three-set defeat against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Wuhan before being thrashed 2-6, 1-6 by Daria Gavrilova in the opening round of the China Open.
Amidst her struggles, Kvitova managed to qualify for the WTA Finals for the first time since 2015 by virtue of her strong performance in the first half of 2018. Opening her Singapore campaign against Elina Svitolina, she was stunned in straight sets despite winning seven straight matches against the Ukrainian coming into this encounter.
She then came out second-best versus Caroline Wozniacki and was on the brink of elimination from the tournament. Her elimination was confirmed when she lost to compatriot Karolina Pliskova in straight sets to end the tournament without a single victory, with this being the first time Kvitova had experienced three consecutive losses at the year-ending championships. She also ended the season with a five-match losing streak.
Season Grade: B-
2018 can be described as yet another typical Kvitova season — patches of inconsistencies overshadowed by stunning and groundbreaking performances. Five WTA titles are extremely impressive although Kvitova was unable to replicate that red-hot form during the Grand Slams, failing to perform according to standards. Nonetheless, despite her lack of success in the major tournaments, she was still able to finish the year ranked seventh and that simply shows how well she played in other tournaments.
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