Petra Kvitova became one of the record 21 male and female seeds to fall on the first two days of Wimbledon 2018 when she was knocked out 6-4 4-6 6-0 by Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Despite being the pre-tournament favorite by a considerable distance, a two-time champion at Wimbledon, the result is simultaneously the biggest upset of the tournament yet no surprise.

2018 has been an unthinkable year for Kvitova. After returning to the tour in 2017 following the attack by a home intruder that caused serious injuries to her playing hand, an indelible mark on her psyche and threatened her future in the sport.

Her first off-season under new coach Jiri Vanek, who formally joined her team only days before the attack, allowed her to arrive in 2018 in the physical form of her life. Throughout 2018, she has done what so many have been waiting for her to do since her breakthrough eight years ago, and what many assumed would always elude her - to play with a sustained level of consistency and win steadily while far from her best. To make winning an insatiable habit.

The records she has notched up in the process have been obscene. Before Wimbledon, she led the WTA in the matches won column, with a 38-7 win-loss record. No player, man or woman, has won more than the five titles she has secured across all surfaces and conditions, including defending her Birmingham title on the lead-up to Wimbledon. Her records against the top players 14-2 against the top 20, 7-1 against the top 10 is even more impressive.

She had also embarked on two of her longest winning streaks of all time across - first a 14-match winning streak spanning from the indoor hardcourts of St. Petersburg to the Middle East, then a 13-match winning streak on clay. Her nickname of p3tra endures, yet for all the good reasons. Not only has she played many three-set matches, but she won them, too. She was 14-2 in 2018.

Despite Kvitova’s two slams, her overall slam record is weak, and even more-so since her last victory at Wimbledon in 2014. Since her last slam win, Kvitova has reached the quarterfinal of only two slam events.

The record has gone under the radar for a while, namely because it seemed a simple consequence of her famed inconsistency, but in a year defined by consistency, her first-round, third round, and first round losses at the first three slams stick out. After her defeat, Kvitova attributed it to her increased will to triumph on the big stage.

“Probably I wanted too much again,” she said. “I just made a joke that probably I going to skip the Grand Slams for the next years. I will see how everything is going.”

She elaborated further, particularly pinpointing her age as a culprit, the inevitable realization of the enormity of what she was attempting to do.

“You know, when I was kind of younger, I played better on the Grand Slams than the other tournaments. Now is the time when I'm playing better on the other tournaments than the Grand Slams.

“So, I make a promise that I going to be very patient and I going to try to break it again for the other side. That's probably how it is, of course. It's about the Grand Slams. But it's just not really working for me right now. But it's fine. I going to try it next time.”

Kvitova is a prime example of the complexities of mental strength in tennis. There is no doubt that she has exhibited supreme mental strength in a variety of categories. Once firmly in her element, she is one of the most mentally strong around. Her finals record now stands at a mighty 25-7.

Even more importantly, the mere notion of her return from her horrific injury speaks to her innate strength that guided her through the darkest moment of her life. When her surgeon told her that her chances of returning to the sport were only 10%, she held onto this sparsest of hope and used it as fuel to rehab as surely as possible. She returned a month ahead of schedule and won a title in her second tournament back.

Tennis presents numerous different outcomes and mental tests - dealing with expectations to simply closing out break points - those who triumph are the ones who can manage all. But in this one column, the ability to perform on the biggest stage in slam matches, Kvitova continues to fall short. To win another slam, she will have to learn to care without her desire swallowing her whole again.