Petra Kvitova books Wimbledon semi against Serena Williams
The fairytale continues for Petra Kvitova with the world No. 62 booking her place among the final four at Wimbledon thanks to a hard-fought victory over Kaia Kanepi.
Kvitova’s 4-6, 7-6(8), 8-6 victory over her Estonian opponent in the quarter-finals has booked her a semi-final match against Serena Williams, an achievement that precious few would have predicted when she began her Wimbledon campaign against Sorana Cirstea a week ago.
That victory in her pocket, the Czech put paid to the championship hopes of 23rd seed Jie Zheng, 14th seed Victoria Azarenka and third seed Caroline Wozniacki – the latter two matches won in straight sets – to set up an all-unseeded quarter-final against Kanepi.
Kanepi emerged from the opening two sets against Kvitova on No. 1 Court today without having been broken on serve, and having made just 12 unforced errors to her opponent’s 23. The qualifier then raced to a 4-0 lead in the deciding set before Kvitova hit back with two consecutive games, including her first break of serve for the match.
Kanepi then held serve again, but faced with holding her nerve to close out the match at 5-3, things again proved a little too tricky as Kanepi was forced to call on a big first serve to save the first break point chance created by Kvitova, but missed a crucial forehand to salvage the second. The world No. 62 then built on that break by holding serve to level the scores at 5-5 in the deciding set.
Saving her best till last, Kvitova broke Kanepi for the third time in the set to take a 7-6 lead and the chance to serve for the match.
While Kanepi, who had fought through qualifying to book a place among the tournament’s elite in 2010, squandered her match-point chances in both the second and third sets, her 20-year-old opponent made the most of her triple match-point opportunity, claiming victory after two hours and 38 minutes on court.
Kvitova, who hadn’t won a match at Wimbledon in two previous attempts, now finds herself just one victory from a place in the final, although with Serena standing in her way, that dream is still a long way from becoming a reality for the giant-killing lefthander.
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