Lucie Safarova is no stranger to success amid the stifling humidity of a Queensland summer.
The left-handed Czech is through to her third-consecutive quarterfinal at the Brisbane International after staving off match point in a three-set thriller against second seed Shahar Peer on Tuesday.
Five years ago she went all the way on the Gold Coast to clinch the third of her four WTA Tour titles and hopes to emulate the triumph on Brisbane’s blue hard courts ahead of her Australian Open campaign.
This year, the world No.33 has her sights set high, drawing inspiration from the stellar run of long-term boyfriend, Tomas Berdych, who defeated Roger Federer on his way to last year’s Wimbledon final.
“Of course a lot of people ask me about Tomas. I was with him when he was playing London [at Wimbledon] so it was a great experience for me and it’s so far motivating me to try to be better and to reach or try to reach a better level,” Safarova said.
“He’s obviously playing great and also now in Abu Dhabi playing good so it’s inspiration for me.”
The Brno native plays fifth-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Thursday for a place in the Brisbane International semifinals where she could meet fellow Czech left-hander Petra Kvitova.
Last year she pushed eventual champion Kim Clijsters to three sets in the quarterfinals, where she was unable to capitalise on a 6-0 second-set win.
“It’s already the third year I’ve reached the quarterfinals here so I’m very happy about that,” she said.
“I changed coach for the new season so working together with Biljana Veselinovic now so it was a great off-season for me – a lot of work, not only tennis, but also physical.
“I feel good now and looking forward … to transferring the work to winning.”
The 23-year-old’s best result last year came indoors in Paris where she fell to Dementieva in a three-set final having earlier taken out Flavia Pennetta, Shahar Peer and Francesca Schiavone.
She also scored major upsets on her favourite surface, clay, downing then world No.2 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki in Stuttgart and Maria Sharapova in Madrid.
Her career-best ranking of 22 was achieved in 2007 on the back of a quarterfinal result at the Australian Open and a fourth-round showing at the French Open (where she defeated Amelie Mauresmo in the third round at both).
She has now snared four of her past six matches against top 15 players and has a new ranking goal in sight.
“I worked very hard in the off-season and I’m happy to play these kinds of matches right now,” Safarova said.
“My goal this year is to be in the top 20. I’m going to work hard to get there.”