Kvitova beaten
The splendid WTA Media Guide discloses, among other facts about Aliaksandra Sasnovich, that it is her dream to win Wimbledon one day. Funnily enough, the world No.50 shares that ambition with rather a lot of others – but not too many of her fellow dreamers can say they have defeated a two-time Wimbledon champion on the greensward of SW19.
Yet in a stunning first round upset, that is precisely what the unheralded Belarusian did. She dismissed the pre-tournament favourite, Petra Kvitova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 to create the shock of The Championships so far. A shock, that is, to everyone except perhaps Sasnovich herself, who has a good line in positive thinking.
“Everyone can beat everyone,” she said earlier this year, after galloping through Brisbane qualifying to reach the final, adding for philosophical good measure: “The ball is round.”
Even so, the swirling wind which greeted the players on No.1 Court could not hint at the tumult to come. The left-handed No.8 seed got off to a nervy start, and Sasnovich stonewalled any attempts to keep the points short. The Czech haemorrhaged break point after break point, and when her own sole opportunity arrived courtesy of the net cord, she could not convert it.
A hint of deeper problems arrived during a 10-minute game at 3-3, when Kvitova’s latest error – she would ultimately amass 20 of the unforced variety in the opening chapter alone – created Sasnovich’s sixth break point of the set.
The Czech squatted down on her haunches for a few seconds, as if battling something more troubling than mere frustration; and moments later, on break point number seven, she was bent double with her hands on her knees. A dreadful Kvitova smash created opportunity number eight, and a wayward forehand at last confirmed the breach for 3-4.
A bee buzzed around Kvitova, and while she swatted that away, Sasnovich was trickier. The 24-year-old Belarusian was playing, Agnieszka Radwanska-style squat shots off her forehand to an ever more lacklustre Kvitova, and at the 4-5 changeover the champion of 2011 and 2014 was shaking her head at her player box. Two chances to level came and went, and Sasnovich pounced with an ace followed by an unanswerable forehand to seal the set.
Oddly, Kvitova has lost four matches this year to players ranked lower than Sasnovich; but she has also captured a Tour-leading five tournaments in 2018, not to mention a Tour-leading 38 matches. In the second set she found her touch to grab a break, and as the set unfolded it was a reminder that those five tournament triumphs include victory on the Birmingham grass – something of a contrast to Sasnovich, who went out in the first round of both her pre-Wimbledon grass tournaments, at ’s-Hertogenbosch and Mallorca.
I thought it would be a good experience for me to play against Petra but I didn’t think about winning
Besides, Kvitova has faced graver tests than this. It is 18 months since the knife attack in her home in the Czech Republic, in which she sustained career-threatening injuries to her left hand – her racket hand, remember. More than a year has passed since she began her comeback at Roland-Garros 2017, so she has now completed the full tour of returns to every event, and all the welcoming affection which naturally each tournament crowd wanted to show her.
Always popular in any case, there is a unique warmth for her as the result of her courageous return from the attack; and should she prove able to bag another Slam title, it will be seen particularly in the context of that rebound.
Nasty surprise on grass
But that will not be at Wimbledon 2018. She looked to be cruising towards taking the match into a deciding set, and while there was a nerve-jangling exchange of breaks at the business end of the second, she did enough. Yet with all the momentum in her favour, she was broken at the start of the third and hurled her headband down in irritation at the change of ends. It didn’t help. Sasnovich tore through an astonishing third set whitewash to seize the most important victory of her career (the player, venue and surface surely trumping her win over the then No.6, Karolina Pliskova, in Tokyo two years ago).
“I thought it would be a good experience for me to play against Petra but I didn’t think about winning,” Sasnovich said. “I gave everything I could on the court. I don’t think I’m playing the best tennis of my career yet. I have to improve all elements, starting with mental preparation. So I can play better, and I’m looking forward. But I played for my team here and for all the people supporting me at home too, and I’m happy.”
“I didn’t have a clear mind and was thinking more than I should,” said Kvitova afterwards. “I wanted to win very badly, maybe too much. Maybe I was surprised she could play on grass, but of course I let her. When I was younger, I played better in the Grand Slams than other tournaments. Now the other way around. I didn’t care that much before. I do care, unfortunately, now. But I think I already won the biggest match of my life.” Nobody had to ask her what she meant.