The Last Word returns, and each weekday, starting on Monday, December 5, we'll give you our year-end thoughts about tennis' best players—this time focusing on the ATP and WTA Top 10. We'll alternate tours each day; here's who we've looked at so far.
Best of 2011
Can you say, “Wimbledon champ?” And Kvitova became that in just her 13th Grand Slam tournament. Since the era of Jana Novotna and Martina Navratilova, Wimbledon has been the ne plus ultra for all Czech players (and, lest we forget, it was the Waterloo for a few of them as well, including Ivan Lendl). Thus, the suggestion that this is a dream come true transcends the cliché.
Worst of 2011
You can throw out that first-round loss at the U.S. Open to Alexandra Dulgheru; Kvitova was still safely ensconced on cloud nine at the time. If we must pick one, let’s make it the first-round loss on the hard courts of Indian Wells to Barbora Zahlavolva Strycova.
Year in Review
Any notion that a big serve, a hot hand, and a little bit of luck (getting to play always-game but frequently-shaky Maria Sharapova in the final) earned her the Wimbledon title was dismissed when Kvitova ended the year on a 12-match winning streak, including a title at the WTA Championships and victory for the Czechs in the Fed Cup final. In truth, we could see Kvitova’s game maturing before our eyes, right from the get-go. She won her first tournament she played, Brisbane, and rolled in Australia until she ran afoul of then-No. 2 Vera Zvonareva in the quarters.
After posting two wins in the Fed Cup play, Kvitova won her next tournament, Paris (d. Kim Clijsters in the final, losing just 7 games). Oddly, though, she ran off the rails during the early hard-court season, going a ghastly 1-4. But once she hit the clay, she caught fire again, winning Madrid (d. Victoria Azarenka in the final). Kvitova also returned home to Prague to play an ITF event as a favor to the promoter and, presumably, her countrymen (l. to Magdelena Rybarikova in final). She was beaten in the fourth round of Roland Garros by eventual champion Li Na.
Kvitova lost the Eastbourne final to Marion Bartoli, but then came Wimbledon—and an overpowering, 6-3, 6-4 performance in the final against Sharapova. The Czech champ suffered early-round losses to Andrea Petkovic in two big hard-court tournaments, Toronto and Cincinnati. But they, like the U.S. Open defeat, were losses qualified by Kvitova’s distracted state after Wimbledon.
When Kvitova got her feet planted on the ground again, she closed with as persuasive a run on indoor hard courts as any woman has produced in recent memory. She won five straight matches in round-robin and knockout play at the WTA Championships to win it all and came within a hair’s breadth of deposing Caroline Wozniacki as the year-end No. 1. In her last two matches at that event, Kvitova took back-to-back, three-set wins over U.S. Open champ Sam Stosur and Azarenka.
See for Yourself
Although that big lefty serve, off-the-ground power, and shotmaker’s mentality are great assets on grass, Kvitova has demonstrated that she’s not a one-trick, fast-court pony. Check out her clay court game here: