The WTA Finals—the season-ending championship of women's tennis—begins on Monday, October 20 in Singapore. Throughout eight days, we'll take a closer look at the seasons put forth so far by the eight singles competitors.

Petra Kvitova stunned the world when she more or less came out of nowhere win Wimbledon in 2011. All you need to know about her adventures since then is that she once again stunned many of the pundits and faithful fans of the game when she won it again, this year.

Kvitova, now 24, was gone from the Australian Open in the first round; by the time Miami rolled around she was in danger of dropping out of the Top 10. Kvitova opened the season reaching the Sydney semifinals then didn’t reach another semifinal until the month of May (in Madrid), and she lost in the third round of the French Open (to Svetlana Kuznetsova) and then, bingo, she won Wimbledon. Despite a shocking loss to qualifier Aleksandra Krunic at the U.S. Open, Kvitova finished strong—winning at Wuhan and making the final at Beijing (losing to Maria Sharapova in three sets).

The fact that she didn’t face a single Top 10 player at Wimbledon did not diminish Kvitova’s joy at winning it one bit.

Kvitova was beaten by No. 88 Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand in the first round of the Australian Open.

Kvitova still needs to show that she can harness that striking power and left-handed juju with any regularity—something that’s less of a technical or physical issue than a mental one. Should she be able to do that, she could be a dominant force in the coming, post-Williams years. She’s three years younger than Maria Sharapova, and while just 2-6 against the world No. 2, Kvitova has plenty of time to improve on the record. She could start with a win in Singapore, under the conditions that have been so friendly to her this year elsewhere in Asia.

WTA Finals Previews

Sunday, October 12: Agnieszka Radwanska
Monday, October 13: Ana Ivanovic
Tuesday, October 14: Caroline Wozniacki
Wednesday, October 15: Eugenie Bouchard
Thursday, October 16: Maria Sharapova
Friday, October 17: Petra Kvitova
Saturday, October 18: Serena Williams
Sunday, October 19: Simona Halep