Sport

Petra Kvitova storms her way to second Wimbledon crown

Canadian hopeful Eugenie Bouchard blitzed in just 54 minutes on Centre Court

Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic celebrates her victory over Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic celebrates her victory over Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
Johnny Watterson at Wimbledon
Sat Jul 05 2014 - 15:42

Petra Kvitova became the women's Wimbledon champion for the second time in her career after a straight sets win over Canadian hopeful Eugenie Bouchard on Centre Court on Saturday.

The Czech sixth seed overwhelmed the debutant finalist with her powerful serving and ground strokes to race to a win in less than an hour 6-3, 6-0.

At 55 minutes it was the shortest women's final since 1983 when Martina Navratilova beat Andrea Jaeger 6-0, 6-3 in a minute less.

“I feel this is a step in the right direction. I feel I don’t deserve all your love today but I certainly appreciate it,” said a disconsolate Bouchard after the match.

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The 24-year-old Kvitova, who won her first title three years ago, came out even more impressively than she did when she beat Maria Sharapova in the 2011 final with Bouchard wilting from the first exchanges under the sheer weight and quality of her opponent's game.

Kvitova broke the 20-year-old’s serve three times in the first set and dropped her own once. But it was the quality of the sixth seed’s ground stokes combined with her seizure of a weak second serve from Bouchard that gathered her most of the points.

Bouchard’s first serve was coming in at a low percentage and her second was a liability, dropping around 20 mph to just over 80 mph. Kvitova retuned it with interest almost every time to a despairing gasp from the 15,000 crowd.

The match appeared to simply race past Bouchard, who had won just one title on the WTA tour prior to Wimbledon. Nothing she could do could get the Canadian back into contention with Kvitova ruthlessly racing through the second set to love.

A disheartened Bouchard left the court before the ceremony as officials waited for the roof to close after the match with rain threatening. Kvitova soon followed in a break from protocol but the two then returned to Centre Court for the prize giving some minutes later.

“I wanted to be here again with the trophy,” said Kvitova afterwards. “Definitely it was a tough match. After three years to be here with the trophy again is absolutely amazing and an amazing time for me.

“Hopefully it is going to be good for everybody (in the Czech Republic) to have a second trophy at home.”