Kvitova confident heading into Wimbledon, happy for Halep after French

Petra Kvitova is looking like one of the favorites for Wimbledon, having won the grass-court tournament in Birmingham with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Magdalena Rybarikova on Sunday.

The Czech has now won five titles, also capturing St. Petersburg, Doha, Prague and Madrid, this season. She is a two-time champion at Wimbledon.

"Can I win Wimbledon? Well, why not?" Kvitova said. "But many things can happen. You can get injured."

A Slam is also more mentally demanding than other tournaments, she added, and did admit that the pressure has recently held her back at the big events.

“The reason probably is I want it too much. This is probably the explanation. In Melbourne, it was kind of different story because I was sick and I didn’t really hit courts before,” Kvitova said. “I didn’t practice for two weeks. It was difficult physically to be in the level I wanted. French Open I think was pretty close. It was very sad for me to lose, in two tiebreakers, which took me a while to get over it.”

But she’s here again.

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"As I said, doesn’t matter what happens in Wimbledon. I’m already pleased with this part of the season. I couldn’t imagine to have five titles this time of the year, so I’m pretty happy already.”

Kvitova also noted that she was happy to reach out to Simona Halep to congratulate her on her French Open title.

In 2017, the Romanian fell in the final to Jelena Ostapenko, getting nervous when she was in a winning position. Kvitova sent her a text following the final.

“We are like on the tour for couple of years already. We know each other on the court, off the court a little bit,” Kvitova said. “I can't say we are, like, friends going for the coffee, but I think when we are not playing tennis, we can be friends. Sometimes I do feel what people feel, so I felt that before when she lost the finals, I always felt that she must be really sad and disappointed, that she's always putting so much work to do that. It was pretty close, that she lost. I just felt it, so I texted her.”

Kvitova texted her again when Halep beat Sloane Stephens in the final, winning her first Grand Slam title.

“Finally she did it, so it was just one of the nicest message that I could send her congrats,” Kvitova said.

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