Kvitova says has much to work on after Melbourne wobble
By Matt Smith
DUBAI (Reuters) - Petra Kvitova admits she still has much to improve upon as the two-time Wimbledon champion returns to competitive tennis this week for the first time since her shock third-round loss to American teen Madison Keys at January's Australian Open.
Kvitova won Sydney's Apia International ahead of that straight-sets defeat to 19-year-old Keys and had lauded the benefits of new fitness coach Alex Stober's gruelling pre-season training regime, but that programme proved insufficient against the big-hitting American in Melbourne.
"I still have a lot of space to improve -- it's not like suddenly I'm going to be the fittest ever, but I'm trying," Kvitova, 24, told reporters at the Dubai Championships, which began on Sunday.
"Alex is a physio as well, so he knows exactly what the body needs. I think that's very important. I'm fitter and I think we still have a lot of room to improve on everything -- to be quicker on the court and more explosive."
Kvitova's hopes of winning a second Dubai title in three years were boosted by world number one Serena Williams's late withdrawal due to illness and the Czech is now second seed at the Aviation Club event.
"The beginning of the year has been better than the last year ... I expected more from myself in Melbourne, but that's tennis. I don't think it was a missed opportunity," said Kvitova, who nevertheless named the Australian Open as the grand slam she had the best chance of winning aside from Wimbledon.
The world number four has a favourable draw in Dubai and is not scheduled to face a fellow top-10 player until the quarter-finals, where if results go to form she will play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska.
Two-times U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki, in contrast, has a first-round showdown against 2011 Flushing Meadows champion Samantha Stosur, the last woman to beat Williams there.
(Reporting by Matt Smith; editing by Martyn Herman)
