Last year, Kvitová of Roland Garros resigned immediately before his start due to a muscle injury to her left forearm. This was heard on the clay even after this year’s coronavirus break, so she avoided this surface. She entered the French Open and held her hand.
Therefore, her team did not have high expectations before the third and last grand slam of this year’s unusual season. “We knew there would be bad conditions, a lot of rain, heavy balls, that’s nothing for Petra. The first rounds are hard because such players put themselves under pressure. We don’t look too far ahead. We focus on every match, every ball. He plays well and that is important for us, “stated Vaněk.
In cold autumn Paris, he sits in a tribune huddled in a down jacket. “But it’s boiling inside you. You don’t want to get cold and maybe cough, because everyone is looking weird. We’re trying to be healthy,” he said.
So far, he is experiencing mostly pleasant moments in the stands. “I’m proud of her. I’m happy she’s going through matches, for example when she turned it 1-5 from Fernandez,” he praised himself.
The two-time grand slam champion must rely on the same weapons as elsewhere on clay. “When I started working with her, I pushed her not to play the clay differently. I told her she didn’t have to run from side to side like everyone else, that she could go to the net, play drivers,” he recalled.
So far, Kvitová is showing this in Paris this year and it could also be a weapon for her semifinal opponent Sofia Keninová. “When she plays her game, with good service and offensive returns, it doesn’t matter what her opponents play because she plays really fast. Kenin is a player who has made incredible success at the Australian Open. She runs, she doesn’t give a balloon for free. “Attack her service, which is not the fastest,” the coach mused.
Kvitová and her team tolerate life in a closed bubble due to measures against coronavirus. “In those tournaments, you know more about the hotel and the chicken
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