Petra Kvitova shows mental strength to reach second Wimbledon final

PETRA Kvitova laughed, teased and joked with the media after her 7-6 6-1 defeat of Lucie Safarova to reach her second Wimbledon final.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 03: Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic celebrates after winning her Ladies' Singles semi-final match against Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic on day ten of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 3, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

A WEIGHT has been lifted. Petra Kvitova laughed, teased and joked with the media after her 7-6 6-1 defeat of Lucie Safarova to reach her second Wimbledon final.

Up until then, the 2011 Wimbledon champion had been a touch tetchy, nervy and uncomfortable. This is good news for Kvitova, but the team behind Eugenie Bouchard, her opponent tomorrow (Saturday), might want to shield their player from pictures of the Czech No 6 seed who wears her heart on her sleeve.

Michal Safar, her sports psychologist, had been intent on teaching Kvitova to mask her emotions while in competition. You can stare all day long at Maria Sharapova and never be at all sure if she feels self-doubt or not. The idea was for Kvitova to be similarly inscrutable. Safar knew that Kvitova was riven with insecurity, but he did not think it was such a good idea for everyone else to see this.

Kvitova tried to be impassive, calm and generally disguise whatever she was feeling, but it used up so much energy that her tennis suffered. Safar gave up. They would have to get along with the 24-year-old letting the world know exactly the state of her emotions. Heck, Kvitova does not even hide the fact that her mental coach is so vital to her progress.

“I’m working more on my mental side, of course,” she said. “That’s something what I think really I need, to work on the mentality.”

It all comes back to that 2011 win over Sharapova. Before it, Kvitova was carefree, even a tad cocky. No one knew much about her, she was young, she was under no pressure at all. Then, all of a sudden, she was a grand-slam champion. There were expectations, there was interest in her private life. In that time she broke up with a long-term boyfriend and began dating Radek Stepanek, defeated in the second round here by Novak Djokovic, and has recently split from him.

“I’m not any more too much a private person,” she said, but as she was in such a good mood, she did not seem mind so much. “When I won here in 2011 I needed to change a little bit on the court and off the court as well, to get used to the pressure, media and everything like that. It was difficult for me to handle it.”

It is not just that Kvitova has reached the final and can breathe a sigh of relief, there is the added bonus that she will not be facing a fellow Czech there.

The women’s draw was cluttered with Czechs this year and Kvitova had to face not just Safarova in this semi-final but also Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the previous round — and Kvitova does not feel comfortable facing friends and compatriots. Maybe she should not have told us this, but she says it how it is.

There are seven Czech women in the top 100, but even so it has all felt a little incestuous. This was the fifth time Kvitova had faced Safarova, the Czech No2, this year. There really was little for the Czech No 1 to be nervous about as she had won all their previous encounters but even so, it was perfectly clear who was the most tense, the most inhibited at the start of their Centre Court outing.

Kvitova said they were both nervous but clearly her friend was better at disguising the fact. This was Safarova’s 37th grand-slam appearance and her first semi-final. Perhaps she was beyond feeling jittery. Certainly she was every bit as elegant and lethal as Kvitova in a closely fought first set during which Safarova made four unforced errors while Kvitova committed 11.

At the start of the tie-break Safarova could have been forgiven for thinking she might have one foot in the final. The 27-year-old has, of late, been ruthless in tie-breaks, winning three of them in her progress to the semi-final and it was no coincidence that the first roar emitted by Kvitova came as she took a 6-5 lead in the first-set decider.

Losing that tie-break knocked the stuffing out of the No23 seed. That had been her only real hope of causing an upset and thereafter her opponent served stronger and made fewer errors.

The crowd were not totally gripped by what unfolded and Kvitova suggested they struggled with the fact there were two Czechs out on court. Both women are left-handed, too, and some of the time it was all too samey with beautiful winners rationed in a meagre fashion.

Kvitova looked slightly stunned when it was suggested that she will be the favourite come the final. Of course she will be the favourite, she has been there and done it — and, at last, being relaxed about it.

The Times