Jan Kodes of the Czech Republic, the 1973 Wimbledon champion and 1970-71 French Open champion, is the author of the new book JAN KODES: A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, a one-of-a-kind coffee table book featuring incredible, never-been-published historic photos. The book, featuring many anecdotes and stories about Czech tennis including Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl and others, is available for $37.96 on amazon.com.
By Jan Kodes
By winning big WTA event in Madrid, Spain earlier this month, Petra Kvitova showed again her great potential.
Her good results from last year’s Wimbledon – where she reached the semifinals – were confirmed with this excellent victory at one of the biggest clay court events on the WTA Tour.
She is working hard has a nice fighting spirit on the court. She is also very modest in her behavior and she provides sympathetic interviews with the press. She is on the right track to get to the top of the women’s game.
Her all-court game – with powerful groundstrokes – and her lefty serve can open the door for her to move higher and higher up the rankings and perhaps earn her a Grand Slam title. She is taking the torch for all the great Czech women players like Martina Navratilova, Hana Mandlikova, Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova.
She knows how and when to reach the net and is not afraid to play there. Her volleys and physical fitness is improving. She also cooperates very well with her coach David Kotyza and in my opinion her confidence is good enough now to win more titles. Petra is definitely the biggest hope for Czech tennis for Grand Slam events this year. She also powered the Czech Fed Cup team against Belgium to reach the finals against Russia. With other Czech lefty teamates like Lucie Safarova and Iveta Benesova could be a surprise winner later in this year. For now, she is a dangerous dark horse at the Grand Slams. Keep a close eye on her!