5th seed Petra Kvitova says she is mentally ready for the challenges that lie ahead after reaching the second round of the US Open.
The Czech Republican won the last five games as she defeated former semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer 6-1 6-4 to reach the second round of the US Open. On a boiling hot day, Kvitova recovered from 4-1 down in the second set to win her first round match on Court 17.
After the win, the two time grand slam champion said that she is mentally ready as she prepares for a deep run in New York, “Mentally I’m ready. That’s important. We’ll see what the body will do,” Kvitova explained.
“Yeah, in the last couple of years, I think I kind of formed a love for New York City, so hopefully will be same this year. And, yeah, the first rounds are always like the worst for me. Today was a great one. So hopefully I gonna continue in the good performance.”
The world number five reached the quarter-finals last year and has a fairly good record in New York, not to mention her recent good form. Another key talking point after today’s match was the heat and Kvitova said that drinking lots of fluids was the key to avoiding the effects of the heat, “Well, I didn’t really do anything special or anything. Just drink a lot of water, as always,” Kvitova said.
“Yeah, the ice towels helped a lot, of course. When you are playing, you are not just really thinking about it. But when you stop for a while, then you feel the heat like from the ground, as well. Yeah, it was the humidity, as well, was there. We didn’t really play, like, long rallies. I think that was kind of helpful.”
The next match for Kvitova will take place on Thursday as she takes on China’s Yafan Wang after a three set win for her over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
