Petra Kvitová had a great week in the official sunniest place in England. She won the Rothesay International in the south coast seaside town of Eastbourne.
Despite her proven ability on grass – two Wimbledon titles – her 2022 grass court campaign began with a straight sets loss to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the first round of the WTA 250 in Birmingham.
Just a week later she went from being evicted from that 250 to winning the title at the Eastbourne WTA 500.
Kvitová’s previous title came 15 months earlier, at the Qatar Total Open in Doha, and she had slipped to 31 in the rankings, to be seeded 14 at Eastbourne.
Her opponent in the final, 8th seed Jelena Ostapenko, was the defending champion.
They had last played in the quarter-finals of Dubai in a three set thriller won by eventual champion Ostapenko, 5-7 7-5 7-6(9). Kvitová led by a set and a break but couldn’t serve the match out. Then she earned another match point in the third set tiebreak and was again unable to convert.
En route to the Eastbourne final, after a first round bye, Ostapenko beat Ajla Tomljanovic 4 & 4; Madison Keys 6-3 when Keys retired at the end of the first set, and Anhelina Kalinina 3 & 3, before meeting Camila Giorgi in the semis.
Last year, Giorgi won the 1000 event in Montreal over Plíšková, and her continuing good form was reflected in her return to a peak ranking of 26 prior to the 2022 Eastbourne.
Having dispensed with Garbiñe Muguruza 7-5 6-3 in the third round, 30 winners to 10, the Italian told the crowd, “It’s my favourite, grass. Since young, so I love it. Especially here in England.”
She had an easy quarter final win over Bulgarian lucky loser Viktoriya Tomova 6-2 6-1. But against Ostapenko in their semi, her play was patchy and her good stretches were not long enough. Ostapenko was too powerful and Giorgi made too many errors trying to deal with it. She lost both sets to 2.
Kvitová’s trek to the final also began with a bye before she beat Donna Vekic, 6-1 7-6.
The next round provided her toughest match, against British wildcard Katie Boulter. The Brit got to round three through an unexpected win over 4th seed Karolína Plíšková.
Currently ranked 127, Boulter has experienced chronic fatigue syndrome, many injuries and much rehab. But she put it all behind her to overcome Plíšková – who assisted by serving a game consisting wholly of four double faults. After coming back from 0-5 down in the first set, Boulter finished with a scoreline of 1-6 6-4 6-4. The win was her first over a top 10 player.
Then she gave Kvitová her toughest match of the tournament. It turned out that this would be the only time in the tournament Kvitová dropped a set.
The Eastbourne crowd is polite and measured in its enthusiasm, the way Wimbledon crowds were pre-pandemic. But they but managed some vocal barracking for Boulter. Australian player and boyfriend Alex de Minaur joined in, watching from the stands and offering encouragement.
Boulter started slowly, falling behind 2-5. Then she fought harder, defending two set points to get to 3-5 and winning the following four games for 6-5.
Kvitová got to 30-0 with two great returns but Boulter pushed back to take the game with her first set point, 7-5. They had won 44 points each.
Although Kvitová had lost the last five games of the first set, she came back to win the next six and take the second set to love.
After taking a break, Boulter came back and played the first game as she had in the first set: serving well and hitting winners.
The crowd, which had been subdued in second set, got involved again. At 4-5 Boulter served to stay in match. Unfortunately for her and the crowd, she started the game with consecutive double faults – one serve long and three into the net. Two loose returns from Kvitová brought the score back to 30-30.
A brilliant cross court backhand got Boulter to game point, and an unreturnable serve got her the game. An animated de Minaur urged her on.
Gradually, Kvitová got to 6-5. Serving to stay in the match, Boulter struggled with errors and couldn’t fight off the second match point.
Kvitová won 5-7 6-0 7-5 in 144 minutes and said, “It was a really tough match, a long one as well. I felt like we are playing on the clay not the grass.”
She then continued on her way to the final with wins over another British wild card Harriet Dart, 3 & 4 and Haddad Maia 7-6 6-4 as revenge for the Birmingham loss.
The final did not live up to the standard of the best matches of the tournament and also lacked the suspense of the players’ Dubai encounter.
As the strong sea breeze challenged the players and seagulls flew overhead squawking, Kvitová raced to a 3-0 lead. Ostapenko belted some brilliant winners in the next game to win it but Kvitová’s consistency saw her reach 6-3.
Ostapenko was broken in third game of the second set as Kvitová’s superb returns had her going for too much on her serve. She then had five break points on Kvitová’s serve but couldn’t convert them. These turned out to be her only break points of the match.
After that the score was quickly out to 5-1 for Kvitová. Ostapenko fought hard to hold her service game, and challenged in the next game, but it was not enough and Kvitová claimed her first Eastbourne, 5-2 in the second set.
At the net Ostapenko ignored the victor’s outstretched hand and went for the hug instead.
Afterwards, Ostapenko was philosophical, “Of course, for me, it was not the result I wanted. But, in general, I think I have to take the positive out of this week because I think I played some great tennis.”
Kvitová had lost the final in three sets to Marion Bartoli back in 2011, when the event was known as the Aegon International, and referred to that loss in her speech.
“I had already experience losing in the final. This time I was a little bit lucky, but it was a tough match…
“Playing on the grass is very special for me every time, especially when you step on such a beautiful court as is here.”
Having missed out in the singles, Ostapenko was scheduled to play the next match, the doubles final. But she was denied a possible trophy by injuring her toe before the match started. So she and her partner Lyudmyla Kichenok gifted a walkover to Aleksandra Krunić and Magda Linette.
Title photo of Petra Kvitová by LTA