Petra Kvitova has praised her fellow WTA competitors ahead of her seventh appearance at the WTA Finals.
The Czech Republican has had another solid season having reached the Australian Open final as well as winning titles in Sydney and Stuttgart.
Now Kvitova will play the WTA Finals for a seventh time in her career, with her only success coming in 2011 when she beat Victoria Azarenka.
However she has a difficult draw in Shenzhen as she faces World number one Ash Barty, Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka and Belinda Bencic.
Speaking ahead of her first match on Sunday, Kvitova praised the level of the line-up this week, “I think there is no easy player here,” Kvitova told wtatennis.com.
“Of course it’s difficult. I do play Ash, which I lost twice in our last two meetings in three sets, so it will be a difficult one for sure.
“I played Naomi and lost in the Australian Open final as well, so I will try my best. I do play Belinda, which for her its the first time playing here, so it’s a nice experience for her. We had a few meetings as well.
“I mean, you cannot choose an easy player. I’m really looking forward to stepping in there and playing. It will be great.”
The 6th seed will begin her campaign on Sunday against Naomi Osaka in a rematch from the Australian Open final in January.
Meanwhile her rivals have also praised the level of competition with Roland Garros champion Ash Barty calling it ‘exciting’, “I’m really excited to be here to play singles for the first time. I have played doubles here a couple of times before,” Barty said.
“I’ve played Naomi and Petra recently in Beijing. [I’m] looking forward to playing Belinda, I don’t think I’ve actually every played her before. It’s a really exciting group.”
Ash Barty will be second on court against Belinda Bencic on Sunday in what will be their first meeting of their career.
Play begins at 4:30pm local time tomorrow while the purple group gets underway on Monday in the season-finale for the WTA tour.
