Life would be boring without pressure, says Kvitova

By Clare Fallon

EASTBOURNE, England (Reuters) - Pressure? No problem, says Petra Kvitova as she prepares to defend her Wimbledon title next week.

"The pressure is there and it's normal, but without pressure it would be boring," the Czech world number four told Reuters.

"The expectation is big, but I'm glad that my team and me are not really thinking about the pressure too much."

After becoming only the fourth female left-hander to win a grand slam in the professional era, life changed for the shy Kvitova, in good ways and bad.

Her results for the rest of 2011 veered from the excellent - winning the end-of-season WTA Championships and leading her team to Fed Cup victory - to the disappointing, such as a first-round loss at the U.S. Open when she hit 52 unforced errors against unseeded Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru.

"After Wimbledon, I didn't have good matches and good results. But I think that it's normal because it's the first time and everything is new and it's a new experience," said Kvitova, 21.

"Life changed too, I had a lot of media stuff to do and sponsors, and people recognized me everywhere so it's not easy. But anyway it's the good part of our tennis life."

Sitting in the sunshine at the seaside resort of Eastbourne, where she finished runner-up to Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the week before Wimbledon last year, Kvitova reflected on her best memory from the All-England Club.