Marion Bartoli turns the tables on Petra Kvitova to reach the quarters – US Open 2012
Amazing scenes were witnessed at the Flushing Meadows, in New York, during the encounter between the fifth seed Czech star, Petra Kvitova and the 11th ranked Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli. It was the fourth round contest
and the 22-year-old Czech was the hot favourite to win the contest especially considering her emphatic run of form in the last three tournaments.
She won the first set 6-1 and hinted at an early ending but a marvellous comeback from the 27-year-old French witnessed a 6-2 and 6-0 set triumph in that listed the first major upset of the fourth round battles. No one expected
such a stunning turnaround in the proceedings especially from the Frenchwoman who was already struggling to find some consistency in her play.
Kvitova won four breakpoints on the trot in the first set; allowed not a single serve hold to her rival whilst losing just one breakthrough during the opening phase to round off the first set in quick succession. She looked unbeatable
at that stage but the overconfidence probably killed her chances of qualifying for the last eight.
Bartoli commenced the second set in style; won two breakpoints to build a strong lead of 4-1 and an exchange of breakthrough didn’t hurt her at all as she just needed to hold serve to enforce the final set into play. She dropped
just one point in the following game and stretched the match to its limits.
Everyone expected a terrific final set battle between the two players. However, it went just one way and the Frenchwoman deserved it. She broke serve twice on the trot upfront and faced no difficulty at all in holding her own serve.
Scores were 4-0 in her favour at that time. She continued to impress and bagged another serve hold; allowing just one point to her rival and one more point was gifted to Kvitova before she was thrashed out of the year’s fourth Grand Slam Championship.
Marion Bartoli is scheduled to take to the former world number one, Maria Sharapova, in the next round clash. She has lost all four head-to-head battles to the Russian in straight sets.
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