Celebrating a century: Petra Kvitova's most memorable WTA 1000 moments

When the WTA 1000 tier began in 2009, Petra Kvitova was a steadily rising 18-year-old prospect who had won Hobart at the start of the year for her first career singles title.

Some of Kvitova's similar age cohorts such as Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki had already cracked the Top 15. Kvitova, meanwhile, had yet to rank higher than No.40.

In her first appearance at the new WTA 1000 level, No.48 Kvitova was upset by 148th-ranked qualifier Julia Schruff in the first round of 2009 Dubai, two weeks before her 19th birthday.

But oh, how things can change: 14 years later at the Mutual Madrid Open, Kvitova will play the 100th WTA 1000 event of her career, where she will aim for her 10th 1000-level title.

Kvitova has won three Madrid titles, more than any other player. She also enters Madrid coming off a spirited title run at last month's Miami Open. 

"I just take it very positively that I can still compete with the best," Kvitova said after Miami. "It means a lot for me that even in my age I can still win a big tournament. That's the biggest thing."

Kvitova, now ranked No.10, will start her latest Madrid run in the second round against Jule Niemeier at 11 a.m. local time on Thursday.

Here are some numbers from Kvitova's WTA 1000 results throughout her career:

9: Kvitova has won nine titles in her 99 previous WTA 1000 events. Only Serena Williams (13) and Victoria Azarenka (10) have won more since the tier began in 2009.

4: Kvitova has finished as runner-up four times at this level, meaning her winning percentage in WTA 1000 finals stands at 69%.

177: Kvitova has won 177 matches at WTA 1000 events, surpassed only by Simona Halep (186 WTA 1000 match-wins) and Azarenka (185).

32: Not only is Kvitova the Madrid title leader, but she has also accumulated 32 match-wins at that event, more than any other player. At only two other events has Kvitova notched more wins in her career: Wimbledon (35), where she is a two-time champion and the US Open (33).

1: Only one player has contested more WTA 1000 events than Kvitova: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who this week in Madrid is playing her 101st.

6: Kvitova is one of only six active players to have won three or more titles at a single event, along with Venus Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Halep, Azarenka and Pavlyuchenkova. Kvitova has pulled that feat off twice, with three titles at both Madrid and New Haven.

And here are some key moments from Kvitova's WTA 1000 history:

Madrid 2011

The first half of 2011 was a crescendo that took Kvitova from promising 20-year-old talent all the way to Wimbledon champion. Her first WTA 1000 trophy in Madrid was arguably the most significant moment.

Kvitova had started the year ranked No.34 but leveled up after winning two of her first three tournaments, in Brisbane and Paris, and reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals in between. But then the Czech retreated, losing four out of her next five matches in the Middle East and North America.

In Madrid, she got the show back on the road with a title run in which she beat Vera Zvonareva, Dominika Cibulkova, Li Na and Victoria Azarenka in her last four matches. It was the kind of statement performance that signaled Kvitova was ready to graduate to the ranks of Slam champion. Four tournaments later, she would do just that at Wimbledon.

It's also a historic curio: the only WTA 1000 title run ever to be bookended by losses on the ITF circuit. Two tournaments before Madrid, Kvitova fell in the Nassau ITF W100 first round to Kristina Barrois. The week after it, she reached the Prague ITF W100 final on home soil, only to lose there to Magdalena Rybarikova. -- Alex Macpherson

Wuhan 2014 and 2016

Along with Madrid, Kvitova has done much of her WTA 1000 trophy lifting in Wuhan, where she was champion in 2014 and 2016. In her six appearances at that event, Kvitova has won 80 percent of her matches (16-4 win-loss record).

Kvitova swept through her Wuhan debut in 2014, dropping only one set and repeating her 2014 Wimbledon win against Eugenie Bouchard in the final.

Kvitova lost only one set in her 2016 title run as well. However, that lost set came during one of the most gripping matches of Kvitova's career, where she outlasted then-World No.1 Angelique Kerber in a 3-hour and 20-minute barnburner in the Round of 16.

"Everything started with the match against Angie, when we really played long," Kvitova said after she completed that 2016 run with the title. "I'm really happy how I played afterwards as well, how physically I managed to play great, even [if] I didn't really feel the best. But I was still mentally strong[.]"

Kvitova seemingly always came into Wuhan inspired, perhaps because it is the hometown of her good friend Li Na. "From the first year I played here, I did really feel like home. It's for sure because of Li Na, as well."

Kvitova can also thank Li Na for bolstering her WTA 1000 championship stats -- Kvitova's only WTA 1000 title in Canada came at Li's expense in the 2012 final. -- Jason Juzwiak

Madrid 2018

Two years after surviving a career-threatening home invasion, Petra Kvitova put together a remarkable comeback in 2018. She won titles in St. Petersburg, Doha and Prague and arrived in Madrid as a two-time champion.

Simona Halep, however, was a two-time defending champion and the commanding favorite. But when Halep fell to Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals, Kvitova shot through that opening and surfaced in the final opposite Kiki Bertens.

Their previous match three years earlier at Wimbledon did not offer much hope for a classic championship match; Kvitova won in an astonishing 36 minutes. And yet, this final delivered.

The No.10-seeded Kvitova ultimately prevailed 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-3 in a match that clocked in seven minutes shy of three hours. The Czech Republic player became the first woman to collect a trio of titles in Madrid. It was the 20^th victory in her most recent 24 finals.

“Feels sweet and weird as well,” Kvitova told reporters afterward. “I didn’t really expect that, even the same time last year. Even coming from Prague last week, I didn’t think I could be in the final, winning the trophy back-to-back. Winning three times here in Madrid, it means something. It’s not really happening every day, so I’m very proud of myself.” -- Greg Garber