Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova suffered a speedy exit from the 2011 US Open giving her opponent Alexandra Dulgheru great assistance with 52 unforced errors in their first round match. The second set was especially devastating for the Czech who committed 20 unforced errors to her opponent's only one.

The fifth-seeded Kvitova lost 7-6(3) 6-3 on Dulgheru's first match point and allowed an all-Romanian second round match between the 49th-ranked Dulgheru and 70th-ranked Monica Niculescu.

Kvitova's loss marks the first big upset of the tournament. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Petra Kvitova will take a few days of rest following her Wimbledon title run.  The 21-year-old Czech was playing Wimbledon on painkillers and now she's decided to skip next week's NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies in Austria to fully recover.

Kvitova was supposed to be top seed at the $220,000 event and Julia Goerges will now take that place.

The video I included in this article instead of a photo is Kvitova's photo shoot with her Wimbledon trophy and men's singles champion Novak Djokovic. Kvitova attracted a lot of positive attention with her blue gown at the Wimbledon Champions Ball.

I was inspired to do this post when I saw that many news sources, including The Telegraph and Guardian, claimed this guy was Petra Kvitova's father. He may have been the most noticeable face in Kvitova's box, but he is not the 2011 Wimbledon champion's father. I found that the man is Jaroslav Navratil, a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia.

Here are photos of Kvitova's father Jiri Kvita, who introduced Kvitova to tennis.

Jiri is a teacher. Read more »

Three WTA players from the Czech Republic won Wimbledon title over the weekend: Petra Kvitova won in women's singles, Kveta Peschke won women’s doubles title partnered with Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik and Iveta Benesova won mixed doubles with Austria’s Jurgen Melzer.

The 21-year-old Kvitova delighted women's tennis with her confident and solid performance against Maria Sharapova in the women's singles final. No screams, big stage or the credentials of her opponent could shake Kvitova's game, she was determined and stable in her 6-3 6-4 win over the three-time Grand Slam champion. As for the rankings, Kvitova has risen from No.8 to No.7.

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Nike has had a lot of reason to celebrate as we had an all-Nike semifinals at Wimbledon 2011 with Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova, Sabine Lisicki and Victoria Azarenka. When the world No.8 Kvitova  lifted the greatest tennis trophy on Saturday, Nike already had a tribute to the Czech prepared. When Li Na won Roland Garros last month, Nike also had everything ready for the party.

The 21-year-old Kvitova was also given a tribute by her racquet sponsor, Wilson.

And here are Kvitova's tributes to:

• modesty: "I don't want to change, I just want to be like everyone else, I'm nothing special."
• her game: "Some special tactics, it wasn't."
• stability: "I don't care about the noise. When I play I don't think about it. I just play my game. Azarenka was also noisy and I don't care."

(via Down the Line, quotes via Women Who Serve)