Momentum can be a fickle friend in the WTA.
Sure, there are the lucky few who find consistent success from the get-go. But high-profile “One-Slam Wonders”, prematurely-hyped media darlings and plenty others come and go — they burst onto the scene, score a couple big wins … and fall into oblivion, struggling to maintain their early success.
Dominika Cibulkova spent this year making sure she wasn’t part of that crowd, and she might now be poised to translate her run into an even more successful 2012.
The Slovak first made headlines in 2008 when, at age 18, she defeated then No. 7 Venus Williams on her way to the Doha quarters. She continued her upset-filled year by making the finals in Amelia Island and Montreal. Though she failed to win a title in either outing, she looked primed to break into the elite after a semifinal appearance at the ’09 French Open, which brought her to a career high of No. 12 in the world. Things got a little tough for Cibulkova after that, though. Despite putting up some good fights, she didn’t beat any player ranked in the top forty for the rest of the year. Various injuries forced her to withdraw from tournaments throughout the next spring. Unable to defend her Roland Garros points in 2010, her own ranking took a tumble.
It would’ve been easy to write her off after that, but what the diminutive fireball lacks in stature — she’s just 5’3” — she makes up for in relentless spunk. Cibulkova kicked off this season by defeating world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in Sydney, a win she repeated at Wimbledon a few months later. And it wasn’t her only top-ten victory of the year — she beat Vera Zvonareva in Indian Wells, Maria Sharapova in Madrid, and Francesca Schiavone in Beijing. There were some hiccups along the way, of course — an abdominal strain kept her out of events in May, and hampered her performance during July, but she looked healthy by fall, and her results showed it.
Cibulkova made her first stand in Linz, where she claimed the seventh seed. She had a little bit of luck as withdrawals by Andrea Petkovic and Flavia Pennetta opened up her half of the bracket, and she made her way to the final after surviving three straight, three-set matches. She ran into a roadblock in red-hot Petra Kvitova in the championship match – her first time playing for a title in over three years, but didn’t seem discouraged by the loss.
Days later, she headed to Moscow where the draw boasted some of the sport’s premier talent — Vera Zvonareva took the top seed, followed by Agnieszka Radwanska, who was riding an 11-match, two-title winning streak at the time. Just barely seeded, Cibulkova came back from a set down against Zvonareva in the quarters and dismantled Elena Vesnina in the semis to make her second final in a row. Competing against former top-20 player Kaia Kanepi, who’d dispatched two seeds herself in Russia, she fell into a hole after dropping serve early but was able to force a deciding set. Despite just one break in the first 19 games, both ladies struggled on serve in the third, trading games like baseball cards. Eventually, the 22-year-old succeeded in serving out the match, winning her first Tour title and capping off what has arguably been her best year yet.
The season-ending victory did more than propel Cibulkova to her highest ever year-end ranking. At No. 18, she’s still a few spots below her peak in 2009, but it turned the tide decidedly in her favor. She has shown that she can effect big upsets on all surfaces, and she’s finally proven she has the wherewithal to endure match after match to claim the crown.
I don’t expect it will be long before she adds another trophy to her mantle. And while it might be too aggressive to call for a Major championship this coming year, as long as she stays healthy, she should make a few deep runs at the Slams and cause some real damage along the way. And if momentum stays on her side, 2012 could be the year Dominika Cibulkova truly shines.
Kavitha Shastry is a contributing writer at On the Baseline. She writes about professional tennis on her blog, Tennis Spin.
