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Kvitova swats aside Collins to reach first Australian Open final

Kvitova

Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 24, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Petra Kvitova will compete in her first Australian Open after ending the fairytale run of unseeded American Danielle Collins with a decisive 7-6(2) 6-0 victory on a scorching afternoon at Melbourne Park on Thursday.

The eighth seeded Czech will meet the winner of U.S. Open, Naomi Osaka, and seventh seeded compatriot, Karolina Pliskova, as she bids for her first Grand Slam triumph since claiming the second of her Wimbledon titles in 2014.

The match at Rod Laver Arena was riven with tension, with a delay to close the roof during the first set due to the stifling conditions and a malfunction of the net cord sensor.

The hitches at the start of the second set left server Collins fuming.

Kvitova capitalised on the American’s distraction to break her three times in succession on the way to an emphatic victory.

It also made her the first Czech woman to reach the Melbourne final since Jana Novotna lost the 1991 decider to Monica Seles.

“It means everything. I really worked very hard; finally I made it deep in this tournament,” Kvitova said in her on-court interview.

“I am going to enjoy the final whatever happens. I am very, very happy.

“The first set was very tight. I was very nervous. I am glad I came through the tiebreak.”

Collins was angered when the net cord technology failed at 15-30 when she was on serve during the opening game of the second set.

Having won the point, she was made to replay it and remonstrated with chair umpire Carlos Ramos.

The technology gave up another phantom beep on Collins’s replayed serve and Ramos told both players there had been a malfunction.

Re-starting with a second serve, Collins gave up a backhand unforced error to concede two break points.

She saved one with a big backhand winner but netted on the second.

From there, things quickly went downhill for the American as the Czech ramped up her power game and roared to 5-0.

Collins conceded another unforced error on her forehand to give Kvitova match point, and the Czech fired her 30th winner to claim a clinical win. (Reuters/NAN)

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Sport

Australian Open: Kvitova hammers Anisimova to reach quarter-finals

Kvitova

Melbourne (Australia), Jan. 20, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova steamrolled American teenager Amanda Anisimova 6-2 6-1 to sail into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after a year in the Grand Slam wilderness.

The eighth-seed dominated Anisimova’s serve in the early match at Rod Laver Arena and smacked 18 winners to end the 17-year-old’s fairytale run at Melbourne Park after less than an hour.

Lefthander Kvitova booked her first quarter-final appearance in Melbourne since her run to the 2012 semi-finals and first at a Grand Slam since the 2017 U.S. Open.

The Czech will meet either Maria Sharapova or Ashleigh Barty for a place in the semi-finals. (Reuters/NAN)

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Sport

French Open: Kvitova proves to be ultimate survivor after living to fight another day

Survivor
Paris, May 28, 2018 (Reuters) Petra Kvitova came within three points of falling in the first round of the French Open before three successive aces and her nerves of steel carried her on Monday.

The Czech risked crashing out in the hands of little-known Paraguayan Veronica Royg before she rallied to a 3-6 6-1 7-5 win.

Kvitova arrived in Paris on the back of an 11-match winning streak.

She had suffered career-threatening injuries on her playing left hand after being attacked in her home by a knife-wielding intruder in December 2016.

However, Royg came close to snapping that run as she edged 5-4 and 0-15 ahead on Kvitova’s serve in the third set.

But the woman who proved even her surgeon wrong by coming back to play top level tennis just five months after the attack unleashed three successive aces to survive that scare.

She was soon saluting the crowd with a raised clenched-fist as she broke in the next game before wrapping up victory to set up a second-round meeting with Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena.

“It was really tough, we played over two hours.

“I was more relaxed in the second but the third was tough again and I was lucky that I got the break,” Kvitova said in a courtside interview.

So what does she think of her winning streak that has earned her back-to-back claycourt titles in Prague and Madrid in the run up to Roland Garros?

`It might be 12 matches but it’s so far from Rafa,” summed up a grinning Kvitova as she acknowledged the feat of 10-times Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal.(Reuters/NAN)
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)

Sport

Kvitova sends Wimbledon warning by winning Birmingham title

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Kvitova
London, June 25, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) Petra Kvitova showed she will be a serious contender for a third Wimbledon title after beating Australian Ashleigh Barty 4-6 6-3 6-2 to win the Aegon Classic in Birmingham on Sunday.

This was just her second tournament since returning from a knife attack injury which sidelined her until last month’s French Open.

The Czech, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, suffered a knife attack during a robbery at her home in December that left her with a damaged hand.

The 27-year-old not only looked untroubled by her hand this week but also looked to  be back to her best.

Her explosive serve was often too much for Barty as she produced 13 aces.

Kvitova served out for the title in emphatic fashion —- to love and ending with an ace —- before celebrating, in her typically understated style, with a broad smile.

Her last final on grass had been her triumph at Wimbledon three years ago against Eugenie Bouchard.

While her talk on arrival at Edgbaston was purely about her delight to be playing again, she clearly has bigger goals now.

“I like to play finals on grass. I wish I could have more. I won’t be sad if it is in a couple of weeks (at Wimbledon), but there is still a lot of work to be done,” she said in her on-court interview.

“It was an amazing week, an amazing tournament. From my first hits on the grass I felt great, it was encouraging to get into the grass season.

“I came to play, to improve my game, I didn’t really have any expectation. I wanted to play my best which I showed today and I hope I can keep doing that,” she added.

Barty, who three years ago took time out from the sport to play in Australia’s domestic women’s cricket competition, had pulled off an upset in the semi-finals.

She beat Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, the 2015 Wimbledon runner-up.

Her punchy and tenacious approach was effective again, as she lost one point in her first four service games and took the first set with some comfort.

But Kvitova settled into her rhythm in the second, taking a 5-1 lead before stuttering a little at the end of the set with two double-faults handing her opponent a break.

But the Czech kept her composure and took the contest into a third set, where she broke in Barty’s first service game.

The Australian was in no mood to surrender however, breaking back for 2-2, only for Kvitova to respond in kind and then run away with the match. (Reuters/NAN)
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(Edited by Adeboye Ajayi and Olawale Alabi)