DUBAI // The reigning champion is ready. Petra Kvitova, winner of last year’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, is confident she has put behind her the disappointment of a first-round exit at last month’s Australian Open and is now fit, healthy and prepared to defend her Aviation Club crown.
Kvitova, the third-seed player, will begin her campaign on Tuesday with a second-round match against Carla Suarez Navarro, the Spaniard who on Monday defeated Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-2. The 23-year-old Czech believes last week’s run to the quarter-finals in Doha was the turning point to a season in which she suffered shock defeats to low-rankers in both Sydney and Melbourne.
“It has been hard,” she said of her recovery process after an Australian Open loss to Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum, then ranked more than 80 places below her in the world rankings. “I was expecting much more than a first-round exit and it took me some time to get over it.
“I wanted to play in Paris and asked for a wild card, but then I was sick and couldn’t play, so the match in Australia stayed in my mind for a long time until Doha. Now I’m just glad it’s in the past and I can look again to the future.”
The virus that ruled Kvitova out of Paris has passed and she showed signs of recovery on the hardcourts of Qatar last week, fighting determinedly to beat Venus Williams and Lucie Safarova to set up a quarter-final against Jelena Jankovic, the No 5 seed. She eventually lost to the Serb in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
“Every time you’re sick, it takes everything out of you, and when I am losing my fitness, it means a lot for me on the court,” the former Wimbledon champion said. “I tried to do everything as soon as possible after the sickness and I felt I did OK in Doha – I did five hours in two days, so I will only get better and better.”
It was not too long ago that Kvitova was only two wins away from being crowned world No 1. Now she sits sixth in the world.
“This is women’s tennis,” she said. “Everyone has a chance.”
As last year’s winner, the expectation is that Kvitova’s chance may be better than her rivals. It is not a logic she agrees with, saying the only benefit is good memories.
“I saw the draw and it is very tough,” she said.
“From the first rounds, you have to play like quarter-finals. In a bigger draw, it’s fair to say sometimes we are not 100 per cent ready for the first round, but here, if you are not ready, then it is very tough.
“In Doha, I played as good as I did last year, so I hope Dubai is going to be as good as last year, too. I can only try my best, though.”
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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