Will the Real Petra Kvitova Please Stand Up?

On her way to storming through the Wuhan Open, Petra Kvitova destroyed the always-tough Simona Halep, then did the same to Dominika Cibulkova in the final.  Neither of these two opponents are pushovers by any means, but Petra made very quick work of both of them.  Kvitova also beat world #1 Kerber in this tournament. 

Throughout the week Kvitova played tennis befitting of a world No. 1.  So why does she not play this well all of the time?  We’ve seen this level of play before in her two Wimbledon wins, where she decimated Sharapova and then Bouchard in finals.  Kvitova remains one of the great enigmas of women’s tennis.  Her movement is good for someone so big, she has good touch in the forecourt, she has a very daunting lefty serve, and her groundstrokes are very penetrating from both sides.   Why then is she ranked outside the world’s top ten?

            Kvitova has had respiratory problems over her career that have been attributed to allergies.  This problem, along with her discomfort when playing in the US, has probably contributed to her losses.  But these explanations do not account for the fact that many of her matches, regardless of where, go three sets.  When you’re losing a set in most of your matches, you are more likely to fail to go all the way in tournaments.  She is currently playing without a coach, which suggests to me that she should remain coachless until she finds someone whose communications don’t inadvertently run at cross purposes with her success. 

            Kvitova is a very well liked player and a tremendous talent.  If she can play consistently great tennis she can add a lot of intrigue to the women’s game.

On the men’s side, Thomas Berdych beat Gasquet to win the Shenzhen Open.  He is now 300 ranking points away from displacing Nadal from the year-end championships.  That fact speaks eloquently to Nadal’s problems.