Wimbledon has touted many tennis greats of past and present, with Petra Kvitova being one such victor at the tournament. Although Kvitova is not having the 2016 season she expected, she still has a great chance to bounce back with a fury at her favorite battleground: the All England Club.
Will the WTA standout indeed have an easy time handling her first-round opponent this Tuesday in Sorana Cirstea? Let’s find out below. And for more Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles coverage, head on over to our previews for Radwanska vs. Kozlova and Vandeweghe vs. Bondarenko right after this.
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Despite having a lackluster 2016 season, many pundits are banking on Petra Kvitova to emerge victorious from Wimbledon again this year, so much so that the oddsmakers have currently priced her at +500 to win the entire tournament.
As you may have heard, Kvitova is a two-time Wimbledon champion (2011 and 2014). Her 28-6 record at the All England Club is impressive to say the least; especially when you consider that she has made it to at least the quarter-final round of the tournament in five of the last six seasons.
But again, this entire year has been a rough one for the tenth-best female tennis player in the world. Kvitova sports an underwhelming 15-14 record to date, with just two semi-final appearances or better before falling to higher-ranked competition in World No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska (QF – Indian Wells) and World No. 4 Angelique Kerber (SF – Stuttgart).
Still, Kvitova’s opponent this Tuesday in Sorana Cirstea is no top-10 player, and she’s already had her fair share of success against her upcoming opposition. The cunning Czech has four-career wins over Cirstea, including a 6-2, 6-2 straight-sets victory in the first round of Wimbledon itself back in 2010.
Flying under everybody’s radar is Sorana Cirstea, who seems to have recovered well enough from her shoulder problems from last year.
Given the unfortunate injury, Cirstea began this season merely as World No. 244. Yet slowly but surely, the ravishing Romanian has climbed her way back up the world rankings, now with her being the 85th-best female player around mainly by reaching a couple of early ITF finals and winning one of them (at Beritoga, Brazil this January).
Cistea’s performances in both the ITF and WTA circuits this season have been nothing but consistent. The 26-year-old righty has won more than three matches in 10 of her 12 tournaments this year, counting her spectacular showing at the grass courts of Mallorca this month, where she made it as far as the quarter-final stage.
And while Petra Kvitova has more head-to-head victories than Cirstea, the Bucharest native also prevailed victorious over the Czech on two other occasions; albeit that they were wins on hard-court surfaces from 2013 and 2010.
With the combination of a struggling Kvitova countered by her own solid 2016 campaign, Cistea certainly appears to have the perfect recipe for a huge upset this Tuesday.
Writer’s Prediction
Cirstea (+325) pulls off a Lannister-like shocker by defeating Kvitova in three sets for the first major stunner in the Ladies’ Singles side of Wimbledon.
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