Petra Kvitova (photo ©Carine06) reached her first final in a Grand Slam tournament. The Czech player is relatively little known by people not closely following tennis because she’s a young player who made a lot of progress during the last year and recently entered the Top 10 of the WTA rankings thanks to victories in major tournaments such as Paris and Madrid’s. However in Wimbledon last year she reached a surprise semifinal defeating even the No 1 in the ranking Caroline Wozniacki only to lose to Serena Williams. To reach the final she defeated Alexa Glatch, Anne Keothavong, Roberta Vinci, Yanina Wickmayer, Tsvetana Pironkova and Victoria Azarenka losing a total of two sets: one in the quarter-finals and one in the semifinal.

Maria Sharapova is back into the final of the first Grand Slam tournament she won in 2004. After losing almost a year due to a severe shoulder injury she improved her level step by step first winning small tournaments and this year a more important one in Rome. In Grand Slam tournaments this year she’s getting her best results as she reached the semifinals at the French Open. To reach the final she defeated Anna Chakvetadze, Laura Robson, Klara Zakopalova, Shuai Peng, Dominika Cibulkova and Sabine Lisicki without losing a set.

The match begins with tension so both Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova lose their first serve games. In the next games the Czech serves better while the Russian has some problems and in the sixth game she loses her serve with two consecutive double faults. In the eighth game Sharapova faces a set point for Kvitova but she serves her first ace. In the ninth game however the Czech keeps her serve to win the first set 6-3.

In the second set Maria Sharapova still has problems with the serve and immediately loses it. Petra Kvitova however starts having some problems in serving too and from the fourth game there’s a series of four consecutive breaks. The tension gets higher and higher so when when Kvitova finally holds her serve it’s almost an event. After two games the Czech closes the set 6-4 again on her serve and she even scores her only ace on the match point. Petra Kvitova conquers the match and her first great triumph at Wimbledon. She’s the first left-handed player to win Wimbledon after her idol Martina Navratilova.

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Maria Sharapova is certainly unhappy for her defeat but she’s showing she can still compete at top level so she could still win more Grand Slam tournaments.

In an edition of the Championships where the Williams sisters weren’t in great shape and Caroline Wozniacki failed again the conquest of a Grand Slam title it was Petra Kvitova who imposed her power but also her considerable technical skills. In the final the Czech felt the tension but never choked and in the end she deserved to win. She hasn’t a great mobility but she’s working on that and if she can be among the best from that point of view as well for her the sky is the limit.