Is Kvitova close to her Wimbledon-winning best?

The desert sands of the United Arab Emirates are a long way from the green grass of Wimbledon, but for Petra Kvitova there is a clear connection. Life has not always been easy for the 22-year-old Czech since her memorable triumph at the All England Club two years ago, but victory here in the Dubai Duty Free Championships – her first tournament wins for more than six months – was a reminder of the level of tennis of which she is capable.

Even though this tournament is played on hard courts, the speed of the playing surface at the Aviation Club brought the best out of Kvitova, just as the slick grass did at Wimbledon two summers ago.

A week after going close to denying Serena Williams the victory she needed in Doha to reclaim the world No.1 ranking, she overcame a challenging draw to win the 10th title of her career, beating Daniela Hantuchova, Ana Ivanovic, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki and Sara Errani. If the speed of the courts suited Kvitova, in other respects the conditions were tough, with temperatures approaching 30C under the fierce desert sun and an occasional stiff breeze.

she is clearly a big-occasion player. All but two of the titles she has won have been at either Grand Slam or Premier level, the Premier tournaments being the eight most important events on the Women’s Tennis Association tour.

Asked if she felt that Wimbledon would be her best chance of winning another Grand Slam title this year, she said: “Well I love Wimbledon, so I hope so. I love to play on the grass, and for me Wimbledon is always special

The one significant weakness in the Czech’s game until now has been her movement, but she has embarked on a new training programmed designed to strengthen her legs. She admits her body has been “confused” by the change, but after a scratchy start to the year, including a second-round defeat at the Australian Open, the new regime seems to be working. 

The win moved Kvitova up a place to No.7 in the world rankings. In the longer term – and with this year’s Championships at Wimbledon less than four months away – the victory could soon have even more significance.

Click here to see Wimbledon tickets........

ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS 2011 - DRAW JUST RELEASED

Defending champion Roger Federer will meet World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in a repeat of last year's final at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which begins Sunday at The O2 in London. The duo was drawn in Group B alongside Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who Federer beat last week in the BNP Paribas Masters final, and Mardy Fish.

In Group A, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will contest round-robin matches against British favourite Andy Murray, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych.

The draw was made today at BBC Radio 5 studios, where the ceremony was broadcast and streamed live.

SINGLES GROUPS

Group A
Novak Djokovic
Andy Murray
David Ferrer
Tomas Berdych

Group B
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Mardy Fish

The world's top two doubles pairings, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan and Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic, lead doubles Groups A and B respectively.

DOUBLES GROUPS

Group A
Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan
Mahesh Bhupathi / Leander Paes

Group B
Michael Llodra / Nenad Zimonjic
Daniel Nestor / Max Mirnyi 

Book tickets for the ATP Finals 2011 at Premier Events

BERDYCH, TSONGA, FISH COMPLETE 2011 BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS SINGLES FIELD

Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Mardy Fish will complete the singles player field at the 2011 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held  November 20-27 at The O2 in London, featuring the world’s Top 8 singles players and doubles teams.

All three players were guaranteed their place among the world’s Top 8 following results at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris on Thursday after Berdych defeated Janko Tipsarevic. Berdych, Tsonga and Fish join a star-studded line up including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and David Ferrer at The O2 in London.

For more info about tickets, go to Premier Events

MURRAY SIZZLES AS LONDON NEARS

Andy Murray will head into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals as arguably the hottest player on the planet after winning three consecutive titles during the Asian swing in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai. He has won 25 of his past 26 matches.

Second seed Andy Murray won his third ATP World Tour title in three weeks in Asia as he retained his Shanghai Rolex Masters crown with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over third seed David Ferrer on Sunday.

Victory will see the 24-year-old Murray overtake Roger Federer at World No. 3 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings. It will be the first time since 7 July, 2003, when he won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, that Federer has ranked outside the Top 3.

"My goal for the last three-four months after the US Open was to try to finish as high as possible and win as many matches as I could," said Murray. "It's obviously been a great start. But I'm still not guaranteed to finish at No. 3. I'm still going to have to win some more matches. But if you finish in front of Federer in a year, then there's not many people the last five, six, seven years that have been able to say that. So that's obviously a nice thing if I can do it."

Murray has now won 25 of his past 26 matches. The Scot came into Shanghai on the back of title runs at the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok (d. Young) and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (d. Nadal), and prior to a semi-final loss at the US Open (l. to Nadal) had triumphed at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (d. Djokovic).

See Tickets for the ATP World Tour Finals 2011 here.