For Kvitova, the fourth title from Madrid would be a dream

The winning gesture of Petra Kvitova in the championship in Stuttgart.

Thomas KinzelAnd the Reuters

“It is a long road. Three victories are really incredible, and I wouldn’t call the fourth a dream,” Kvitova said during an Internet press conference ahead of the tournament, which begins on Thursday. “All the elite players are here. It’s like the second week of a Grand Slam tournament, you face one big opponent after another. The tournament is very difficult.”

Madrid is a milestone in Kvitova’s career. “He changed my view on mud,” she explained. Thanks to a first title in 2011, she gained guts on a slippery surface. “I realized I could play well on clay and beat the best players. It added a lot of confidence.”

She added another wins there in the 2015 season and three years ago. So Madrid is one of her favorite events, of course after Wimbledon. “And after the Federation Cup, the bronze medal in the Olympics and the Champions League title, Madrid are directly behind her anyway,” Kvitova said.

Petra cheered Kvitova unsuccessfully, finally losing the quarter-final battle at the championship in Stuttgart.

Marijan MuradAnd the Reuters

The thirty-one-year-old is satisfied with the local conditions. The average height of the city is 667 meters. “It happens to me that the balls here fly from me to the other side quickly and back slower because the mud slows me down so much.

After losing in the quarter-finals in Stuttgart on Friday, I sped home by car, arriving just after midnight. On the weekend, I took a shower, relaxed, and traveled to Spain on Monday. “From bubble to bubble,” she said. “But it is good that something is happening now, because I prefer to play over training.”

Czech tennis player Petra Kvitova.

Thomas KinzelAnd the Reuters

In the first round, she will meet fellow countryman Maria Bozkova, who lost her last year in Cincinnati in one match on the WTA circuit. Kvitova’s plans “I played well for a hundred and a half, then lost a little focus, so now I have to put up with it to the end.” The winner may run into another Czech, Markéta Vondroušová, who is waiting for German Angelique Kerberová in the first round.

The six-star Carolina Pliskova will compete with American Corey Goff, and Carolina Moshova will face Chinese Wang Wang, and in the second round she could clash with world number two Naomi Osaka from Japan. Paula Badosaová awaits homemade Barbora Krejčíková.