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Petra Kvitova Opens A New Hall Of Fame Dedicated Entirely To Her

Published

1 year ago

22/07/2022

Petra Kvitova - image via https://twitter.com/Petra_Kvitova

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has achieved various accolades throughout her career and now she has her own museum to mark those achievements.

On Thursday the 32-year-old officially opened a Hall of Fame created in her honour in the Czech city of Fulnek where she was born. The facility has two separate areas. In one part of the exhibition tennis rackets, player accreditations, and even pieces of clothing belonging to Kvitova are on display. Then in a separate area, there are two trophy cabinets which include both the Wimbledon trophies she won in 2011 and 2014.

The idea of creating Kvitova’s own Hall of Fame came from her brother Libor and her father Jiri was involved in preparing the facility. Jiri, who was the person that introduced his daughter to tennis, was unable to attend the opening ceremony due to health reasons. The project was developed by the city of Fulnek and the Tennis Sparta Agency.

“It’s the first hall of fame for an individual athlete in the Czech Republic, so I’m glad that Fulnek is the first in something again,” Kvitova told Czech media.
“I gave my brother permission. I asked my dad, and even though he didn’t have much to do, he had to allow it. After all, they are my trophies,” she later added.

Tennis fans, welcome to the @Petra_Kvitova Hall of Fame! pic.twitter.com/63xNWLFSjU
— BSLN (@wearebsln) July 22, 2022

Kvitova has been an honorary citizen of Fulnek since winning her maiden major title back in 2011. During her career, she has won 29 WTA trophies, been ranked as high as No.2 in the world and has won more than $34M in prize money. She has beaten a top 10 player on more than 50 separate occasions.

Amid her success, Kvitova also had to contend with a serious hand injury that threatened to end her career. In 2016 an intruder entered her apartment and held a knife to the tennis player’s throat. Kvitova fought to free herself but in the process suffered a serious cut to her hand from the knife which required immediate surgery. Damage was done to her nerve and even when she returned to the Tour she had no feeling in some parts of her hand. After an extensive police search, Radim Zondra was convicted of the offence and sent to prison in 2019.

10 out of her 29 titles were won after returning to the Tour following that ordeal.

According to Tenisovy Svet, one of the items on display is a wooden racket which Kvitova used when she first started to play tennis.

“I have two older brothers who played tennis. As the youngest, I ran with them and handed them balls. That bat has been through a lot,” she said.

Another item is her runners-up trophy from the 2019 Australian Open which she describes as the most ‘painful defeat’ of her career. She missed out on winning the title to Naomi Osaka who battled to a marathon 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-4, victory.

“Probably no one believed that I could be in the final of the Grand Slam again. It was probably the most painful defeat in my career, but when I look back on it, I think it was an amazing success after everything that happened,” she reflected.

Kvitova will return to competitive tennis next week at the Prague Open where she is set to be the third seed.

Note: quotes via Indes.cz/tenisovysvet.cz

The Petra Kvitova Hall of Fame in video (source – iDNES)

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Alexander Zverev beats Roman Safiulin to to claim his second title of the year in Chengdu

Published

8 hours ago

26/09/2023

sampaolo

Alexander Zverev came back from a set and a break down to beat Roman Safiulin 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 at the Chengdu Open claiming the 21^st title of his career.

Zverev has moved to seventh seventh in the ATP Race to Turin boosting his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Safiulin saved three break points in the 10^th game of the first set, which went on serve en route to the tie-break. Safiulin earned three mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-3.

Safiulin earned an early break in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. Zverev broke straight back and forced the second set to a second tie-break. Zverev went up a mini-break three times, but Safiulin pulled back on serve each time. Zverev was two points from defeat at 5-5 in the tie-break of the second set but he won the final two points to win the second set.

Zverev earned the decisive break in the fourth game to open up a 3-1 lead and closed out the win on his first match point.

Zverev won his second title of the season after his triumph in home city Hamburg last July. “He is playing the best tennis of his life for sure. The way he was winning this week. I think he beat a lot of great players quite easily, so I think that he was playing well. Obviously, I am happy to be able to come back and to win this title”, said Zverev.

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Daria Kasatkina beats Marta Kostyuk to advance to the second round in Tokyo

Published

15 hours ago

26/09/2023

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Daria Kasatkina came back from one set down to beat Marta Kostyuk 3-6 6-4 6-3 in 2 hours and 24 minutes reaching the second round at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

Katatkina is playing her first tournament since the US Open, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round.

Kasatkina set up a second round match against Greek qualifier Despina Papamichail, who beat Japanese lucky loser Sakura Hosogi 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 in 2 hours and 19 minutes.

Kostyuk dropped just eight points on serve and broke serve in the fourth game to close out the first set 6-3. The second set featured nine service breaks in ten games. Kostyuk went up a break three times, but Kasatkina pulled back on serve each time. Kasatkina broke in the eighth and tenth games to seal the second set 6-4.

Kostyuk went up a break twice in the third set, but she was broken back both times. Kasatkina drew level to 3-3, as Kostyuk made a overhead error, and won the final four games to seal the third set 6-4.

Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova cruised past Donna Vekic 6-1 6-1 in just 74 minutes. Nineteen-year-old Linda Noskova saved one set point to beat Japanese lucky loser Himeno Sakatsume 6-2 7-5 setting up a second round against Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova.

Ekaterina Aleksandrova came back from one set down to beat Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (7-9) 6-1 7-5 in 2 hours and 21 minutes setting up a second round against Liudmila Samsonova.

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Eight of the top 10 players in the line-up in Beijing

Published

18 hours ago

26/09/2023

sampaolo

The China Open, an ATP 500 hard-court tournament, is taking place for the first time since 2019 after a long break due to covid-19.

Eight of the top 10 players in the ATP Ranking are lining up in the Chinese capital. Carlos Alcaraz will face a qualifier in the first round before a clash against either Karen Khachanov or Lorenzo Musetti in the second round. Alcaraz won six titles this year in Buenos Aires, Indian Wells, Barcelona, Madrid, Queen’s and Wimbledon during a successful 2023 season.

The Spanish player could face a quarter final against Roland Garros finalist Casper Ruud. The Norwegian player will play against Jan-Lennard Struff, who made his come-back from injury last week in Zhuhai. The German player finished runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in Madrid and to Frances Tiafoe in Stuttgart in his two finals earlier this year.

Holger Rune has been drawn in the top draw and could meet Jannik Sinner, who won his first Masters 1000 title in Toronto and reached the semifinal at Wimbledon. Sinner will face Dan Evans, who won the Washington Open last August. Rune, who is currently ranked eighth in the ATP Race to Turin, beat Sinner in the semifinal in Monte-Carlo. The Danish player will face Felix Auger Aliassime in the first round.

Alexander Zverev will start his campaign against Diego Schwartzman in the first round and is seeded to face Stefanos Tsitsipas, who meets Nicolas Jarry. Zverev won his first title of the season in Hamburg and reached the semifinal in Cincinnati and the quarter final at the US Open.

Andrey Rublev will take on Cameron Norrie in the bottom half.

Chinese Next Gen player Shang Juncheng will play against Yoshihito Nishioka in an all Asian first round clash. Shang reached the quarter finals in Washington and Atlanta.

The most interesting first round matches are: Andy Murray vs Alex De Minaur (Masters 1000 finalist in Toronto) and US Open finalist Danil Medvedev vs Tommy Paul. Murray could face Danil Medvedev in the second round.