2013 a huge year for Kvitova

Petra Kvitova must be looking back at her season and wondering where it all went wrong after enduring a torrid 2012 on the WTA tour.

The Czech started the year with her head held high, strolling into the Australian Open with the latest Tennis odds in her favour, ranked second in the world and with the Wimbledon and WTA Championships titles already in the bag.

Yet her form plummeted this year as quickly as it rose during 2011 and Kvitova enters the end-of-season break knowing things were meant to go a lot better. Indeed, her explosion onto the women’s circuit just last year suggested the WTA had found their next big star to rival Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.

A quarter-final finish at Melbourne in January 2011 proved the Czech capable of enduring hard-court tennis and, despite falling early at the French, her 6-3 6-4 victory over Sharapova at Wimbledon that summer propelled her to the forefront of the women’s game and the minds of punters over at Betfair Tennis.

Indeed, her hard-court brilliance continued into the autumn and despite a dismal US Open display Kvitova lifted the WTA Championships crown in Istanbul that October, at the expense of world number one Victoria Azarenka.

It was all going so well, but a series of illness and injury has ruined Kvitova’s hopes of continuing off the back of her amazing 2011 season. February saw an Achilles problem keep her out of Doha while Dubai was exited due to sickness. Early-round defeats through the spring were wiped clean with a semi-final spot at Roland Garros, but again the 22-year-old limped out of minor tournaments as the tour headed into autumn.

This year’s WTA Championships performance said it all. Having crashed out of Tokyo with stomach flu earlier in October, Kvitova went into the curtain-call event of the year under strength and out of form. She lasted just one match before retiring from the tournament.

Finishing 2012 ranked a lowly eighth, Kvitova must rid herself of injury and illness over the winter break if she is to contest the Australian Open yet again come January.