Petra Kvitova

Petra Kvitová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈpɛtra ˈkvɪtovaː]; born 8 March 1990) is a Czech professional tennis player. Known for her powerful left-handed groundstrokes and variety, Kvitová turned professional in 2006 and has won 25 career singles titles, two of which are Grand Slam titles, the Wimbledon Championships in 2011 and in 2014. She also won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her career-high ranking of world No. 2 was reached on 31 October 2011 and as of 25 June 2018, she is ranked world No. 8 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). As such, Kvitová is the current highest-ranked left-hander on the WTA Tour as well as the second highest-ranked Czech, behind Karolína Plíšková.

Kvitová first gained notice upon defeating then-world No. 1 Dinara Safina in the third round of the 2009 US Open. This was followed by her first major semifinal appearance at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships where she came up short to eventual champion Serena Williams. Then, during her breakthrough season in 2011, Kvitová won her first major title at the Wimbledon Championships, defeating Maria Sharapova in the final, thus becoming the first player of either gender born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam tournament title. She also won the WTA Tour Championships, thus becoming the third player to win the tournament on debut, the others being Williams and Sharapova. She also helped lead the Czech Republic to victory in the Fed Cup final that same year. It was the Czech Republic's first Fed Cup title as an independent nation.

In 2012, Kvitová made the semifinals of the Australian Open and French Open, and was also crowned US Open Series champion. That same year, she also won the Hopman Cup alongside Tomáš Berdych, which was the Czech Republic's second and most recent Hopman Cup title. In 2014, she won her second and most recent Grand Slam title at the Wimbledon Championships, defeating Eugenie Bouchard in the final. In 2015, Kvitová achieved the feat of making the quarterfinals at all four Grand Slams after advancing to her first quarterfinal at the US Open, where she lost to eventual champion Flavia Pennetta. In 2016, she won the WTA Elite Trophy in her first appearance at the tournament, thus becoming the first player ever to win both categories of year-ending championships on debut.