By Kieran Jackson | Sunday June 24, 2018
Petra Kvitova will take some stopping on the grass at Wimbledon.
The world number eight successfully defended her title at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham today, beating Magdalena Rybarikova today 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a topsy-turvy final.
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The victory is Kvitova’s fifth title of a stellar 2018 season, and the two-time Wimbledon champion will be brimming with confidence as she heads down to Eastbourne this week.
Yet it was her Slovakian opponent, who has prestige of her own on grass following her run to the Wimbledon semi-finals last year, who took the opening set.
After an early exchange of breaks, Rybarikova broke her opponent to love at 3-3 via some powerful, deep returns, and despite facing a break point when serving for the set at 5-4, the world number 19 clinched it after Kvitova missed a backhand volley into the net – one of 20 unforced errors from the Czech in the first set.
However, losing her first set of the week seemed to re-ignite Kvitova’s all-out, hard-hitting game, as the fourth seed cruised to the second set after breaking her opponent in the second and sixth games of the set.
In the decider, Kvitova relentlessly kept up the momentum, breaking her opponent three times in a row as she dropped a game on serve herself.
With Kvitova 5-1 up, Rybarikova, who won the Birmingham title in 2009, forced her opponent to serve it out, but Kvitova held her nerve, holding to love and sealing the championship with an ace – her first of the match.
“I think today was a great final to kind of fight,” said the champion. “We played over two hours, so it was a great final to watch I think, I hope.
“She [Rybarikova] is a tricky player. I needed a little bit of time to get used to spins and slices and volleys and whatever she plays. We practiced one day here before the tournament, but still a match is a match.
Kvitova is the first player to win two years in a row at the Edgbaston Priory Club since Maria Sharapova’s brace in 2004 and 2005.
“I didn’t really expect to win here”, continued Kvitova. “I just played match by match, being very happy to be on the grass and the tennis court. I’m already pleased with this part of the season. I couldn’t imagine to have five titles the time of the year, so I’m pretty happy already.”
Rybarikova admitted Kvitova’s run to the final may have influenced the result, after tiring in a match which lasted two hours and five minutes.
“She put so much pressure”, said the runner-up. “She’s a great player, amazing on grass. That’s why she won the tournament – she won all the matches so fast, I kept her longest in the match.”
In the doubles final, the first seeds Timea Babos (HUN) and Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) beat Elise Mertens (BEL) and Demi Schuurs (NED) 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a nail-biting conclusion to not only the match but a superb week of grass-court tennis in the Midlands.
The grass-court action in the UK now rolls on down to Eastbourne, where both Kvitova and Rybarikova will be in action.
Freelance sports journalist Kieran Jackson is covering the grass-court season ahead of Wimbledon for Tennis Now. For more of Kieran's tennis coverage, follow him on Twitter.