How you typically picture a certain player says a lot about them. I think of Novak Djokovic skidding for a backhand save. I think of Martina Navratilova on the full, flying run toward the net. I think of John McEnroe making contact with his serve, a grimace of effort across his face.
With Petra Kvitova, I start by trying not to think of the celebratory yelp—or is it a word in Czech?—that she has begun to make after each winning point. Instead, I begin by blocking that sound out and thinking of her leaning forward at the baseline, eyes wide, feet restless, impatiently waiting for her opponent to serve so she can knock the ball back down her throat. Kvitova has been compared to Navratilova because her lefty-ness and her nationality. She's been compared to Lindsay Davenport because of the aggressive heft of her shots. But seeing her ready to return, I think of Monica Seles, another lefty who lived for the chance to bash one more ball.
Fans of Kvitova's might wish that the 21-year-old Czech, who cemented her place as the WTA’s Player of the Year—official or unofficial—with her sixth title of the season in Istanbul on Sunday, weren’t quite so restless and impatient. They might wish that she wouldn’t always go for the first strike, or hit virtually every ball at full throttle. It would, if nothing else, probably make her matches a lot less time-consuming to watch, because the quality of her play wouldn’t swing quite so wildly, so often. But that return stance, and that impatience to batter the next ball, is what Kvitova is all about—sometimes for worse, mostly for better, soon for best.
Great champions from McEnroe to Nadal have been known as perfectionists—they don’t like to make a mistake. Kvitova so far has won with anti-perfectionism. She sacrifices consistency and point-construction for raw power and risky placement. She knows she can hit a winner with any shot when her feet are set, so that’s mostly what she tries to do. In one sense, if you think of the old advice, “play to your strengths,” this is a smart move.
Because what sets Kvitova apart from her peers, or at least the peers who made it to Turkey, is her ability to hit blatant winners, so why shouldn’t she try to maximize that? Kvitova’s ground strokes are also fairly flat and penetrating, rather than safely, smoothly spinny. In the future, developing a safer rally shot, one that allows her to be patient, to choose her spots to be aggressive rather than taking the first opportunity, may allow her to become a dominant No. 1. For now, though, I’ve never seen a great player with so little in-between game or neutral gear. Kvitova makes all of her shots, and then something snaps and she misses all of her shots. Yesterday she broke out of the gates and won the first five games from Victoria Azarenka; she lost the next five almost as quickly. Unlike Seles when she was dialed in and at her best, so far the price of Kvitova’s tremendous shot-making is an extremely low margin for error. What makes her great is what makes her awful.
But what makes Kvitova great is exactly what her opponent, Azarenka, lacks. I’ve speculated that as good as Vika is, as much as she’s improved both physically and mentally this year, and as much heart as she showed in making two major comebacks in the Istanbul final, she doesn't have the one thing that most Slam winners have in common—the ability to take the racquet out of her opponent’s hand. The ability, in other words, to win points outright, whether it’s with a serve or a forehand, and not rely on the other person to help out with a miss. Azarenka does have power, especially when she can step into a backhand, but her game is about moving the ball around and using her athleticism to eventually outplay an opponent in a rally. What she lacks is the killer punch from anywhere. Through the first two sets, Azarenka controlled many of the rallies, but often couldn’t convert them with a putaway. I won’t go so far as to say that she’ll never win a major, but it won’t be easy for her.
The start of the third set was a perfect nutshell example of what separates these two players. In the first game, Kvitova faced four break points—she had just lost the second set and the match appeared for a second to be slipping away from her. But she rallied on the strength of good serving and, more important, forehand winners. In the following game, it was Azarenka's turn to face a break point. Like Kvitova, she set up for a forehand into a wide-open court. Unlike Kvitova, when Azarenka let loose with it, she sent it 10 feet long. Kvitova had a one-break lead that she wouldn’t surrender.
These two players are 21 and 22, they’re ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in the world, and they fairly dominated this tournament in the absence of Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters. We’ll see what happens when the latter two elder stateswoman return, but there's a new WTA generation shaping up at the top of the rankings. While its third member, Caroline Wozniacki, held onto her No. 1 spot this week, Istanbul felt like the moment when Kvitova, who went 5-0, passed everyone else on the outside. Her winners were obviously impressive, and she showed more touch around the net than she ever has—how about that McEnroe-esque sharp-angled backhand volley winner while turning her body in the other direction? Kvitova is adding to her list of shots that very few, if any, of her opponents can match.
What I liked most, and what seemed different, was how determined she was to battle her way through the bad patches. In the final, it wasn’t Kvitova’s return or her forehand that got her to the finish line. It was that ultimate first-strike shot, the serve. On crucial points coming down the stretch, she swung it wide in the deuce court, and Azarenka had no answer for it—the racquet was essentially out of her hand. This was a more patient and tactical Kvitova than we've seen.
Next Martina, next Lindsay, next Monica, next No. 1? Next exasperatingly inconsistent talent, or next dominant champion? After watching Kvitova light up Istanbul for a week, after seeing more finesse and a champion’s finishing grit, I’d say we just want what was next from her. I'm looking forward to whatever comes after that.