By Jan Kodes
Jan Kodes of the Czech Republic, the 1973 Wimbledon champion and 1970-71 French Open champion, is the author of the new book JAN KODES: A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, a one-of-a-kind coffee table book that documents the history of tennis in the Czech Republic. The book features an incredible array of historic and never seen before photos and many anecdotes and stories about Czech players including Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl and many others. It is available for 24 percent off here: http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Kodes-Journey-Behind-Curtain/dp/0942257685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320242085&sr=1-1
Petra Kvitova achieved another prestigious title by winning year-end WTA Championships in Istanbul on Sunday. She confirmed that her Wimbledon win was not a fluke and produced some of the best tennis of her career once again. Petra was able to easily smash her opponents in the round-robin group and repeat her powerful groundstrokes during the semifinals and final while also mixing in excellent placements with her serve. She started to deal well with the tension and was not afraid to come to the net and play a few drop-volleys. This reminded me of the days of a young Martina Navratilova! Petra’s mental strength has grown quite quickly and, with it, her potential. She has an excellent chance to soon become No. 1 in the world. If she keep improving her physical fitness for slower surfaces like clay, she will be able to near dominate the women’s game.
We will see this week her in another battle for the Czech team as a key player in the Fed Cup final in Moscow. This tie will not easy for the Czech team since the Russian women have been dominating the game with a number of players ranked in top 30. There will be extreme pressure on Petra because all of the Czech public including politicians, TV, press and fans from Czech believe that there is a great chance for our country to win Fed Cup for the first time in 22 years! If Petra wins two singles matches hopefully the third point is not impossible, because her two other teammates are good doubles players. Kveta Peschke and Lucie Hradecka captured Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and French Open. And Lucie Safarova? She is good enough and can have another winning day in the other singles matches. This is going to be a very interesting tie.
Petra must and hopefully will attack with all of her mettle the current world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki beginning next year in Melbourne at the Australian Open. She has a great chance and must take it as soon as possible. Her lefty spin serve and aggressive returns will work well outdoors as well and if Petra can be ready to deal with the sun-wind conditions, she can make it. It will be interesting to see what will happen next year with other players such as Kim Clijsters or the Williams sisters. Good luck Petra!