Petra Kvitova – Dominant leftie Service 3.0
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) secured her place in the history of tennis mainly with her 2 Wimbledon trophies (2011 & 2014) as well as with her 5 Fed Cup titles (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016). Her best year so far was 2011, when she won also the WTA Tour Finals and reached as WTA #2 her career high. As Petra was just recently able to come back after her dubious hand injury from the end of 2016, the list of her achievements might grow even further in the future years.
Petra’s favorite strokes are the service and the backhand, which is a great combination for her as a left-handed player. Her forehand is a bit mistake prone, as I did write about it in one of the previous articles here. Below, I am showing some important details from Petra’s dominant service through the years, from her so far most successful 2011 season and then some rather recent ones. And there are some developments to be spotted…, mainly around the eye control of the tossed ball/impact zone and around the body energy transfer – the eye control got significantly better over the years and the energy transfer into the court seems to be a bit reduced lately. The reason behind might be also in the changed focus at the “up and down action” instead of forward energy transfer. In my personal opinion, the premature eye/head motion occurring in 2011 might have been the main reason, why Petra hit few double faults too many, which might have caused her to miss the WTA #1 back then. Further it also appears that Petra might have been doing a bit more of the pronation (bigger arm & racket turn) back in 2011. But needless to say, any comparisons of this kind are taken a bit out of the context of the match/practice. Only observations of quite high amounts of the strokes played under similar circumstances can really confirm a certain trend. The form/angle of the pronation then varies also with the spin variety being used.
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1 st Service 3.0 in the practice – 1 of 1 – follow through 1 – targeted pronation – here, Petra has reached, thanks to a massive push-off bringing her center of gravity quite high and thanks to an almost perfect arch and an excellent full long-axis pronation, an almost optimal transfer of the body energy into the stroke – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 1 of 4 – toss / backswing – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 2 of 4 – push-off / cocking – perfect eye control here – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 3 of 4 – end of follow through 1 – excellent transfer of the body energy into the stroke and perfect control of the non-dominant (right) arm – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 4 of 4 – follow through 2 = relaxation – the rather long motion of the racket going back may sometimes cause a delay in the preparation for the next stroke – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 1 of 3 – toss / backswing – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 2 of 3 – acceleration from the cocking position towards the impact – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 3 of 3 – start of follow through 2 = relaxation – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 1 of 1 – beginning of the toss – typical for Petra is the toss starting well ahead of the backswing and also an open initial racket head position – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 1 of 1 – acceleration from the cocking position towards the impact – excellent high reach with the elbow and perfect eye control of the tossed ball – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 1 of 1 – topspin service just after the impact – Petra has a great eye control of the tossed ball, but she tends to turn her head away from the ball/impact zone towards the target a little bit too early, like shown here – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie Service 3.0 in the practice – 1 of 1 – direct service just after the impact – this image shows well Petra’s almost optimal high impact and a quite perfect body energy transfer, the slight head tilt is a certain risk factor (for looking away too early) – 2011 Cincinnati Masters, OH / USA
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 4 – push-off / cocking – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 2 of 4 – impact – eyes/head stay in the position, the hips are getting less into the court than at the photos from 2011 above, but also the toss is more back here – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 3 of 4 – end of follow through 1 – head remains in a stable position but hips have moved clearly less into the court and the pronation is rather less pronounced – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 4 of 4 – follow through 2 – relaxation – Petra lands rather not as far in the court like in 2011 – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 4 – starting position with a wide base (= platform stance) – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 2 of 4 – push-off/cocking, in between from a pinpoint stance – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 3 of 4 – just before the impact – Petra’s elbow is reaching practically the highest possible point, eyes are well focused at the ball – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie 1st service 3.0 in a match – 4 of 4 – end of follow through 1 – targeted pronation – the palm is still facing away – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie service in a match – 1 of 4 – loading with perfect body and racket control – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – Leftie service in a match – 2 of 4 – push-off /cocking – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – leftie service in a match – 3 of 4 – short after the impact / follow through 1 – pronation is rather delayed here – 2016 US.Open – New York
Petra Kvitova (*90 / CZE) – leftie service in a match – 4 of 4 – follow through 2 = relaxation – 2016 US.Open – New York
This article covers certain aspects of Petra Kvitova’s service only!! More significant details and further photo material are available upon request at drmgb11(at)gmail.com
Photos (August 2011 & August 2016) & text (July 2017) copyright by Dr. Martin G. Baroch. Any further publication of photos and/or text with the written permission of the author/copyright owner only!
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