No. 3 seed, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, was sent packing today after being pounded by No. 62 ranked Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the 4th round of Wimbledon 2010.
The pounding took only 46 minutes. Who is this Petra Kvitova who can knock off a high seed without hardly breaking a sweat? In her post match press conference, the questions were not about how she thought she played, but the first question to her was: “We don’t know who you are very well. Can you tell us a little bit about you?” Her answer didn’t really clear things up very much. “I was born in Bilovec, Fulnek is my residence and I’m practising in Prostejov.”
Oh well. She is only 20 years-old. That may be why we haven’t heard much about her yet. However, Caroline is only 19, and she is currently ranked No. 4, and has already been as high as No. 3.
Caroline, the 2006 Wimbledon girls champion, looked out of sorts from the start against the only left-hander left in the draw. Two stinging returns from the Czech player enabled her to break her opponent in the fourth game of the first set and she consolidated to move into a 4-1 lead. Petra broke again to wrap up the first set in 25 minutes and cruised through the second even quicker to confirm her place in the last eight.
In an impressive all-round display, Petra hit 23 winners, compared to only four by the world No 4, and did not allow her opponent a single break point.
We may be hearing more about Petra. She had never won a match on grass before the first round at this tournament, but has now knocked out seeds in three successive matches, including No. 23 Zheng Jie, No. 14 Victoria Azarenka and now No. 3 Caroline.
She has never made it past the 1st round in two previous appearances at Wimbledon. Now she is through to the Quarterfinals. That is quite an improvement! Perhaps we are watching the birth of another tennis star.
Surprisingly her opponent in the Quarterfinals has a lower ranking than her. She will play the Estonian Kaia Kanepi, currently ranked 80th. Kaia beat Petra’s compatriot Klara Zakopalova 6-2, 6-4.
