By Ros Satar, at Wimbledon
- Aliaksandra Sasnovich def. Petra Kvitova [8] 6-4 4-6 6-0
- Second first round Slam loss this year.
WIMBLEDON, UK – Two-time champion Petra Kvitova – considered as one of the favourites – lost in the first-round to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
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Aliaksandra Sasnovich def. Petra Kvitova [8] 6-4 4-6 6-0
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who was a favourite coming in to the tournament, has exited in the first round after a three set loss to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
In difficult conditions with blustery breezes, Kvitova battled hard deflecting four break points successfully, and even having three of her own that she could not convert, before being on the losing end of a long game after saving three more break points, but falling on the fourth.
With Sasnovich closing out the first set, Kvitova rallied to take an early lead in the second set. Despite losing her own serve at the end, she broke one more time to level the match. Yet just as quickly the momentum went from her with the Belarusian ripping through the final set with Kvitova not even getting a game on the board.
After the match, Kvitova said: “The nerves were there again. I don’t know. I just tried to kind of fight with myself. Probably was the biggest opponent which I have. Yeah, I tried. I changed it in the second set when I got an early break. In the third, I think it was just too quickly when she was on the board, and I just couldn’t handle it anymore.”
In Birmingham, Kvitova admitted that when it has come Slams certainly this year, her results have not been as spectacular as her tour results. Coming into the tournament she held a tour-leading five WTA singles titles this year, and 38 match wins this season. She told reporters that perhaps she had wanted success at the slams too much.
She said, after her match: “I wanted too much again. I just made a joke that probably I going to skip the Grand Slams for the next years. I will see how everything is going (smiling). You know, when I was kind of younger, I played better on the Grand Slams than the other tournaments.
“Now is the time when I’m playing better on the other tournaments than the Grand Slams. So, I make a promise that I going to be very patient and I going to try to break it again for the other side. That’s probably how it is, of course. It’s about the Grand Slams. But it’s just not really working for me right now. But it’s fine. I going to try it next time.”
She makes no secret though that Wimbledon is the Slam that has evoked the most feelings, given how much she loves to play on grass.
She continued: “Who knows? Probably in Wimbledon it’s a little bit more than the other Grand Slams because obviously I know I can play well, which probably is bad. But it is how it is. Yeah, I think it’s the worst one.”
Play continues at Wimbledon at 11:30am on all courts except Centre Court and No. 1 Court, which start at 1pm (all times BST).
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