Petra Kvitova battles past Alexandra Dulgheru in the second round – Apia International Sydney 2012
Third encounter between the two contenders of Apia International Sydney championship, Czech world number two, Petra Kvitova, and Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru, was played on hard courts in Sydney Olympic Park on Monday. Both
players fought for two hours and 18 minutes with final cumulative scores of 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the favour of Kvitova.
Both players had defeated each other once before this encounter; Czech ousted Dulgheru in the Madrid Open last year whilst Romanian had her revenge in the first round of the US Open Grand Slam the same year. The second round
battle in Sydney turned out to be the one of the most entertaining encounters of the tournament. A considerable crowd gathered in the arena to witness the two prolific visitors in action.
Traditional start to the match witnessed both players hanging on to their serves in the first two games. Romanian flabbergasted everyone in the third game as she clinched the crucial break to exert immense pressure on the
second seed. World number two waited for her opportunity that came in the sixth game and she broke to bring the score back on even terms. Cautious play in the next five games helped both players to capitalize on their serves and the scores moved to 6-5 in
favour of Dulgheru, with Czech to serve the next game. Kvitova was leading the game with two points when her opponent bounced back and broke her serve to surprise the entire audience.
Trailing one set down, Czech second seed organised herself in the break and explored her sublime form. She broke in the third game with two successive eye-startling winners down the line. She gave no opportunity whatsoever
to her rival and continued to capitalize on her serves. Another break in the ninth game of the second set levelled the set scores to one set apiece and enforced the third set to decide the winner.
Sloppy start to the third set witnessed both players holding their respective serves in the first two games. A pivotal serve break for the second seed in the third game turned out the course of the match; two forceful backhand
winner coupled with one perfectly placed drop shot helped Kvitova to seal the only break of the set. No more breaks were seen that rounded the third set in favour of the second seed.
Classic comeback helped Kvitova to place a draw against Slovak Daniela Hantuchova in the quarter-final.
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