Petra Kvitova battles past Victoria Azarenka to take the title – WTA Championships 2011
Petra Kvitova conquered the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011 by surviving a mid match lapse against Victoria Azarenka in the title match.
After battling for two hours and twenty eight minutes on indoor hard courts of the Sinan Erdem Dome Kvitova recorded an electric 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over the fourth seeded Victoria Azarenka on Sunday the 30th of October 2011.
Initiating the first round of the match was current Wimbledon champion Kvitova and in the first thirty minutes she had reeled off straight five games over Azarenka. However, she was unable to close the opening set. Mean while, Azarenka made a comeback and with held Kvitova for the following five games to tie the score at 5-5 by the tenth game.
However, it was just not Azarenka’s day as she double faulted on her second serve in the twelfth game and gifted Kvitova the opening set, who was now one up in the match.
The second set was initiated by Kvitova and this time both the players were skilfully able to hold their serves to rotate the scoreboard to 1-1. It was in the third game that Kvitova’s forehand shot went wayward and she gifted a game to Azarenka, who had held her serve to take a lead at 3-1.
In the following three games the players then held their service games and by the eighth game Kvitova made a return to tie the score at 4-4. Nonetheless, Azarenka was quick to break back and even though she lost the first set, she expertly managed to win the second.
By the end of the first two sets, each player had bagged a set a piece and initiating the decisive set was once more Kvitova. This time the opponents were locked into a toe-toe run and neither player wanted the other to take the lead. The players kept the score tied for the first six games with each player bagging three games each.
With a single breakpoint endorsed by Azarenka in the eighth game, Kvitova was now a game away. She tactfully closed the match in the ninth game and sealed her victory of the set and the match to take home the title.
Right after the match Kvitova said. “It was unbelievable tennis. We were both really fighting every game and every set was very close. We both played some of our best here in Istanbul today - it was a final, so why not”.
With this win, Kvitova not only managed to tie her season title tally with Caroline Wozniacki but also managed to end the year on a career high, ranked 2nd in the world after having started the year ranked 34th in the world.
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