What we learnt from the 2014 Wimbledon women's final

After years of underperforming following her 2011 Wimbledon triumph, Petra Kvitova is back on the Grand Slam dais.

She thrashed Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in straight sets to win her second title at the All England Club.

It was the shortest Wimbledon final measured by time since 1983.

In an impressive display, she lost only three games, making this the most one-sided Wimbledon ladies’ final since 1992 and the most one-sided Grand Slam final overall since the 2012 Australian Open.

For all the pre-match expectation there was of a close match, unfortunately it did not eventuate. Kvitova broke for a 2-1 lead early in the first set, and when she earned another break for 5-2 later on, it seemed like she had it in the bag.

However, Bouchard would not give in just yet and she pegged back a break for 3-5. That, however, would spark Kvitova into action, breaking immediately after to claim the first set 6-3.

Kvitova dominated from that point onwards, sweeping the second set without losing a game to claim her second Wimbledon title.

While Kvitova was a deserving winner, it was a disappointing end to the tournament for Bouchard, who only two years ago won the girls’ singles title and had not dropped a set en route to her first Grand Slam final in only her sixth appearance at this level.

Her run to the final included defeating two top-ten players (Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep), as well as other big names such as Alize Cornet, Andrea Petkovic and Daniela Hantuchova in the earlier rounds.

In comparison, Kvitova’s run to the championship match did not include a top ten scalp, but she did come from behind to defeat Venus Williams in a third round thriller on Centre Court.

Two fellow Czechs, Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova and Lucie Safarova, also fell victim to Kvitova in the quarter and semi-finals, respectively.

The Czech entered the final as the hot favourite on the basis of three things: her world ranking, her recent good record at Wimbledon and the fact that she was the champion in 2011.

She was also guaranteed to return to the top four regardless of the result, displacing Agnieszka Radwanska who failed to defend her points from last year when she reached the semi-finals.

The stakes were also high for Bouchard as well. Having already been guaranteed to enter the world’s top ten by virtue of her run to the final, she could have risen up to sixth in the world had she won.

But like many before her, she crumbled in the final of the world’s most prestigious tournament. Unlike Sabine Lisicki, who famously broke down in tears during the second set of last year’s final against Marion Bartoli, Bouchard was able to at least keep it together despite Kvitova’s increasing dominance.

There is no doubt that Bouchard will be back. Few players at her age have recovered from losing one time to triumph later on, most notably Ana Ivanovic, who crumbled against Justine Henin in the final of the 2007 French Open, only to come back to defeat Dinara Safina at the same tournament twelve months later.

Still, she became the first Canadian in tennis history to reach a Grand Slam singles final, and if she can take anything out of this tournament, it’s that it’s only the beginning of what many predict will be a bright and huge career.

Her run to the Wimbledon final came on the back of consecutive Grand Slam semi-final runs at the Australian and French Opens earlier this year, where she lost to eventual champions Li Na and Maria Sharapova, respectively.

She also won her first career title in Nuremberg on the eve of the French Open, and this was only her third career final after previously playing two championship matches at International level, including in Osaka last year, where she lost to Samantha Stosur in three sets.

It will also be interesting to see how Kvitova builds on this Wimbledon triumph at the future Grand Slam tournaments.

The Czech has struggled at the other three majors, not getting past the third round of a non-Wimbledon Grand Slam since the 2012 US Open, and not reaching the quarter-finals since the French Open that same year.

As has also been well documented, leading up to this year’s Wimbledon Championships, Kvitova’s form overall had struggled in the three years that followed her famous 2011 triumph.

She went from being within a victory of becoming world number one on the eve of the 2012 Australian Open to falling out of the world’s top ten last September. Her confidence dipped as others dominated at major tournaments at her expense.

However, a title in Tokyo, plus a semi-final appearance at the WTA Championships in Istanbul (which will relocate to Singapore this year), raised her ranking up to number six by 2013’s end.

Her second triumph at the All England Club could prove to be the spark that revives her career. We are yet to see her fully peak even though she did reach a career high ranking of world number two in October 2011.

Now 24, there is still at least a decade left in her career and there is no doubt that there will be many more Grand Slam triumphs for Petra Kvitova, who I shall congratulate on a wonderful Wimbledon campaign.

And may she build on it. And so too Eugenie Bouchard, who I’m sure we will also see a lot of in the many years and Grand Slam tournaments to come.