Petra Kvitova battles past Maria Kirilenko to claim the title – New Haven Open 2012
World number five, Petra Kvitova, dug deep to overpower the 14th ranked Russian star, Maria Kirilenko, in the final of the New Haven Open. On the eve of Saturday, the 22-year-old Czech clobbered straight sets 7-6(9),
7-5 but the resistance from her counterpart was worth applause.
It was the sixth encounter between the two players and the recent face-off at the quarter-final of the London Olympics witnessed straight sets victory for the 25-year-old Russian.
So, the revenge mission was on. Kvitova trailed the head-to-head series by 2-3 and eagerly wanted to tie the scores and more importantly claim the second title of the season.
Both players broke serves in the first three games of the match. However, the odd serve hold for the Czech gave her a lead of 3-1. The comeback was definitely on the cards and the seventh seed Russian wasted little time in equalizing
the scores; broke serve in the sixth game and levelled the proceedings at 3-3.
Both players settled into the atmosphere and continued to hold serve; pushed the scores to 5-5 and a tie-breaker round was obvious at that stage. A swap of breakpoints enforced the tie-breaker and a classy winner after an intense
battle helped the 22-year-old Czech to steal the first set.
A conventional start to the second set witnessed a meagre lead for the second seed wildcard entrant who broke serve in the fifth game.
However, three successive breakthroughs tied the scores at 5-5. The resistance of the Russian was finally broken in the 12th game when Kvitova won four points on Kirilenko’s serve.
Kvitova said, "In the tie-break I just played point by point - I wasn't thinking about the score. In the end it was pretty close and I'm really glad I won it. After that, I was down physically, without energy. It seemed like I
was walking, not running. I made a lot of mistakes and went 5-2 down - but then I tried not to think about my shots or tactics and started putting the ball into the court more. Then it was 7-5. I was surprised."
Next up for both tennis aces is the US Open in New York.
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