Navratilova: Kvitova must clean up her game

 

Originally published on: 08/06/12 00:00

Martina Navratilova believes that Petra Kvitova needs to improve her consistency if she is to continue her progress. Navratilova said she had been disappointed with the world No.4’s performance in the semi-finals of the French Open against Maria Sharapova, who has now beaten her in all three of their meetings this year.

“She's been streaky all along and the streakiness cost her the match,” Navratilova said in Paris. “Maria handled the wind better. She's got a little more margin for error.  Kvitova gets away with the streakiness against lower-ranked players, but against somebody like Maria it's going to cost her – and it did.  She would play a few good games, but then she'd have a bad game on her serve and there’s the set.  She needs to clean up her game a little bit. I would still like for her to be a little bit quicker on her feet.”

Kvitova herself acknowledges that she needs to be a more complete player. “I’m trying to play with more variation in my game, trying to play something different,” she said. “I see a lot of players who play drop shots and slice.  Some have big kick serves.  Everybody has something special, and that's probably why they are where they are. I’m just trying to improve in every part of my game.”

Nevertheless Kvitova said she had been pleased with her run to the semi-finals at Roland Garros.  “From the beginning of the tournament I felt good,” she said. “I played good tennis. Of course I’m a bit disappointed, but this was my best result here on the clay in Paris.  Actually, I will be happy in the next few days.”

She added with a smile: “It’s good to get to the semi-finals, but next time I have to be in a different half of the draw to Maria.”

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