Dubai: Petra Kvitova hopes to stabilise her yo-yoing form at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships this week.
The 24-year-old Czech suffered two first round exits against qualifiers here in 2009 and 2011, won in 2013, and lost the second round here last year after a first round bye. Now, the double Wimbledon champion is hoping for a bit more consistency.
“That’s how it is with me, I have great highs but the lows are very low,” said the World No.4 of her form in general. “I’m probably a person that plays a risky game very aggressively.
“It’s not on the same level every time, but I’m working on a more consistent level of form for myself. Being a top-10 player, I have to know how to do that, but it’s not going to happen every time.”
The second seed will either play the Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or the USA’s CoCo Vandeweghe in the second round after a first round bye, and Kvitova said both were potential banana-skins.
Kvitova played Svitolina twice last year, losing to her in Cincinnati 6-2, 7-6(2) and beating her in Wuhan 6-3, 7-5, for a 1-1 career head-to-head record. With Vandeweghe, Kvitova has a 2-0 head-to-head advantage after victories at Wimbledon (2013) and Indian Wells (2014).
“With Svitolina, it was a tough match the last time we played in Wuhan and before I lost to her,” she added. “So I need to be really ready for her. It’s a fast surface here so it’s going to be all about the first shots and points, serve and return. I have to be perfect in that and it’s the same with Coco actually. She’s serving pretty well, so it’s going to be very tough to play her on this surface.”
