Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia were a very successful team.
They won seven titles together – six in 2011, including Wimbledon and made four other finals, including the WTA Championships.
They got to No. 1 together, for 10 weeks after that Wimbledon crown.
Srebotnik and Petrova
But after watching Peschke practice with partner Julia Görges earlier this week, Open Court spoke to Peschke and her husband/coach.
She said the split with Srebotnik was “most probably” permanent.
The gist of the conversation was that the results just hadn’t been there, and that all good things must come to an end.
We didn’t ask who had initiated the split; these things tend to have two sides, so best to just leave it at that.
Admittedly, the last few months haven’t been up to par. Peschkle and Srebotnik won Sydney to start the season, beating Raymond and Huber 13-11 in the superbreaker in the final.
But then Srebotnik suffered a hip injury. They retired early in their second-round match at the Australian Open and, since their return at Indian Wells, things haven’t been great other than a quarterfinal appearance at the French Open. To be fair, they’re losing to pretty good teams most of the time. But apparently the magic is gone.
Peschke teamed up with Julia Görges at the Rogers Cup, and will do the same next week in Cincinnati.
Here’s some video of them at work:
Meanwhile, Srebotnik practiced with everyone’s favorite hitting partner, Eric Chung, while she waited for Rogers Cup doubles partner Nadia Petrova to get to Montreal.
The two are in the final Sunday; next week, Petrova is back with regular partner Maria Kirilenko (no doubt they had planned to play together in Montreal before Kirilenko pulled out last minute, which leads you to wonder who Srebotnik had been planning to play with).
Srebotnik teams up with Zheng Jie of China next week.
Ultimately, doubles partnerships are like marriages. Some last longer than others :-)
