I was prepared to start getting sick of Andrea Petkovic before she had ever really done anything. The dances, the videos, the professed love of Goethe and Bloc Party, the determination to be intelligent and fun rather than just a ball-smacking drone: In theory, there wasn’t a lot not to like; the Serbo-German seemed to be the type of personality that any fan would want from the WTA. But was she all style, without enough substance to back it up, without enough game to be more than an attention-seeking hipster novelty act? Her mechanical style certainly seemed to be no match for her free-spirit persona.
All of that has changed in 2011—the on-court Petkovic has begun to catch up to the off-court version. She reached the final in Brisbane, beat Maria Sharapova to make the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, and this week in Miami she’s handed world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki a rare defeat and come from behind to beat Jelena Jankovic to get to the semifinals. While her serve and forehand remain as mechanical-looking as ever, Petkovic’s charismatic confidence has begun to shine through in the clutch.
“She’s going to be a big-match player for years to come,” Lindsay Davenport said after she watched Petkovic beat Jankovic on her third match point with a gutsy, on-the-line, crosscourt backhand winner.
Petkovic says she loves the big moments, though she has gotten tight in them in the past. I watched her hold, and lose, multiple match points before falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova at Roland Garros last year. But this week she’s backing her words up. Against Jankovic she became more aggressive as the third set went on, while at the same time becoming more accurate with her sometimes-shaky forehand.
But Petkovic isn’t just a basher. In her victory over Wozniacki, she also brought her well-advertised intelligence to the court. She was justifiably proud afterward that she hadn’t fallen into the trap of playing too aggressively against the ultra-consistent Wozniacki, a trap that Petkovic says she has seen a lot of other players put themselves in. She knew that Wozniacki was too good a defender to go for broke against her, so she kept her attacks measured and her percentages high. Today she faces a very different player in a rematch with Sharapova. I didn't see much of Petkovic's win over her in Melbourne, si it will be interesting to see how she approaches her this time.
Petkovic herself seems to realize that her novelty was wearing off. She said after her win over Wozniacki that she wouldn’t do her post-win Petko-dance anymore. This is a positive development—champs are known for winning, not dancing. But she couldn’t help herself when that last backhand found the line against Jankovic. Good for her. I’m happy she’s not a sideshow anymore, but I wouldn’t want her to lose her sense of fun along her way up the rankings. The WTA needs winners, it needs players with guts, but it needs personalities, too.
Originally posted on ESPN.com.