Petra Kvitova bounces over Nicole Gibbs to reach the quarters – New Haven Open 2012
World number five, Petra Kvitova, plonked the 19-year-old American qualifier, Nicole Gibbs, in the second round of the New Haven Open at Yale in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.
The Czech star initiated the match proceedings with an ace and occupied the court well to hold serve after a bit of resistance from her counterpart. Gibbs was pin-point accurate with her serves upfront and she lost just one rally
before bagging an easy serve hold to keep up the pace with her rival.
The second seed wildcard entrant gathered up some momentum and held her serve before squeezing a breakthrough on her opponent’s serve to take a lead of 3-1.
An exchange of breakthroughs in the following two games kept the lead intact for the fifth ranked Czech who smothered another serve hold to post a resounding lead of 5-2. Gibbs couldn’t handle the pressure and managed just one
point on her serve game before her opponent gathered up the first set triumph with a scintillating smash.
Kvitova started the second set as well and that too with a serve hold. The same scenario was followed for the first three games and the Czech broke her rival’s serve in the following game to take a lead of 3-1.
A serve hold for both players pushed the scores to 4-2 before the American teenager fought back to win a breakpoint and diminish a trail to just 3-4. Gibbs held her serve in the following game to equalize the scores and hint at
a comeback in the match that looked out of her control just few games earlier.
The Czech held her serve to 40:15 and placed pressure on her foe to hold serve and keep the set alive. However, it was not the case and the American teen lost the encounter after a battle of 63 minutes.
Petra Kvitova is scheduled to meet the likes of the eight seed compatriot, Lucie Safarova, who has recently showed her class in multiple tournaments and seems set to counter the odds and upset Kvitova.
The quarter-final match between the Czech athletes will be contested on Thursday.
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