The renaissance of Petra Kvitova has been a slow-burning affair but, at the age of 33, the two-time Wimbledon champion is back.
On Saturday, Kvitova defeated Elena Rybakina 7-6 (16-14), 6-2 to win the Miami Open for the first time, ending the Kazakh’s 13-match unbeaten run and denying her the “sunshine double” of Indian Wells and Miami.
Kvitova’s biggest title win in five years, against an opponent in blistering form and at a tournament where she had never previously been beyond the quarter-finals, may be received with surprise in some quarters. Yet a result like this has been coming for a while now.
The Czech first showed signs of a resurgence when she ended a title drought of more than a year on the grass courts of Eastbourne last summer. Another strong showing at the All England Club appeared possible, but Kvitova fell to Paula Badosa in the third round. It was a similar story two months later, when an inspired run to the Cincinnati final was followed by a sobering defeat to Jessica Pegula at the US Open.
Yet Kvitova has always marched to the beat of her own drum, and she continued to post results that suggested something big might be just around the corner. She defeated Rybakina in Adelaide earlier this year and saved four match points to gain a measure of vengeance against Pegula last month in Indian Wells, where she was a quarter-finalist for the first time in seven years. In Miami, where she has thrived on the quicker conditions this year, that big breakthrough finally arrived in the shape of a ninth WTA 1000 crown and a 30th career title, second only to Venus Williams among active players.
“I love the game,” said Kvitova. “I’ve had a lot of ups, that’s always been the motivation to have them again. I think this is the best feeling what you can have, winning a final as I did today. That’s [what] I love the most, the winning feeling of it.”
For the past month, that winning feeling has belonged to Rybakina, who claimed her biggest title since last summer’s Wimbledon victory at Indian Wells, defeating Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, the top two players in the world, along the way. Against Kvitova, though, the world No 7 must have felt like she was playing in front of a mirror, the first-strike tennis that is her métier reflected right back at her. It looked that way from the outside, too, the pair matching each other serve for devastating serve, bullet return for bullet return.
Predictably, rallies were at a premium. The first exchange of any notable length arrived in the ninth game, Kvitova prising a backhand error from Rybakina on the 10th shot of a meaty back-and-forth to bring up three break points. Fittingly, it also brought up the most notable moment of what had, up to that point, been a rather prosaic spectacle, Rybakina missing a first serve before another brief rally ended with her drilling a backhand long. Yet things are rarely straightforward where Kvitova is concerned, and in the next game Rybakina caught the Czech at her feet with a deep return to convert her first break point of the match.
With an improbable exchange of breaks concluded, a tiebreak that had always seemed inevitable quickly came around. That prospect will have held few fears for Rybakina who, remarkably, had won all seven of her previous tiebreaks this year. But there is little that Kvitova hasn’t seen in her time on the tour and, over the course of the titanic 22-minute struggle that ensued, she was sustained by the knowledge that all such streaks end eventually.
“Before our final I read, yesterday, that Elena didn’t lose a tiebreak yet this season,” said Kvitova. “So, you know, I had a break up. I was like, ‘OK, good. I’m going to serve it out.’ And boom, it was a tiebreak. I was like, ‘Oh, very nice. What are you going to do now?’
“But I was telling myself that she has to lose, at some point, one tiebreak in the season. So I was going to try.”
Try she did. Serving with intelligence, variety and precision, and holding her nerve brilliantly to stave off five set points, Kvitova finally sealed the set on the 30th point of the breaker –which was also her own fifth set point. It was a desperate tug-of-war, the momentum constantly shifting back and forth, every moment potentially pivotal.
Arguably the most significant passage came when, to Kvitova’s evident dismay, Rybakina clipped the back edge of the baseline as she fended off the Czech’s second set point. Many a match has turned on less, and hearts were in mouths among her vocal supporters when Kvitova, whose scepticism about the electronic line call was palpable even after it was replayed on the big screen, went on to net a forehand. That brought up a second set point for Rybakina, but Kvitova found a wonderful, swinging southpaw second serve to set up an easy winner.
“For sure the tiebreak decided today all the match,” said Kvitova. “I think it was the longest one I ever played in my life, and it was like, if I didn’t serve [well], I couldn’t be there.
“It was like one mini break and then [an]other one, and we just kept going on the serves. I totally lost the control of who is serving, who is not, when we are changing sides and so on.
“It was really the hardest tiebreak I played probably.”
After coming out on the wrong end of such a tight set in what was her 12th match in 22 days, it was perhaps inevitable that Rybakina would experience a lull. Kvitova was quick to press home the advantage, rifling a backhand return winner to break for 2-0 before leaning across the net to put away a short ball as she held to consolidate her advantage. Rybakina fruitlessly questioned the legality of the shot, but it was to be her last real gesture of defiance. It has nonetheless been an extraordinary run by the Kazakh, especially after a faltering start to the tournament as she adjusted to the conditions and an understandable battle against fatigue.
“It was a really tough first set, and I think it made a big difference starting the second,” said Rybakina. “I’m just happy with two weeks overall. Not so happy with the second set, of course, but I think it’s still a positive one month here in the US.”
That sentiment will be shared by Kvitova, who will return to the top 10 on Monday as a result of her efforts over the past month. Could she also return to the grand slam winners’ circle in due course? On this form, it is not out of the question. Once again, Wimbledon promises to be interesting.