Petra Kvitova ousts Francesca Schiavone to reach the last eight - Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2012
World number three, Petra Kvitova, ousted the 31-year-old Italian, Francesca Schiavone, in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to commence her clay court campaign in Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. The clash unfolded in just
59 minutes that proved to be a great morale booster for the reigning Wimbledon Champion.
Both players started off with serve holds at both ends and repeated the same phenomenon for one more time to keep the scores together at 2-2. However, the deadlock was broken by the Czech who won the first breakthrough of the match
and built upon it with a serve hold. She ousted her opponent in the seventh game to take a resounding lead of 5-2 and spared just two points in the final game before bagging the set with no pressure at all.
The second set was exactly identical to the first; even the breakthroughs were contested in the fifth and seventh game that confirmed the quarter-final spot for the Czech. The match hardly lasted an hour before Kvitova bagged 56
out of 88 points contested. She smashed five aces and converted four of the allotted six opportunities to break serve and saved one of them to stamp her authority.
Both players were poor with the double faults having conceded seven of them in total with third seed Czech leading the ratio 4:3. Before this encounter, both players were evenly poised with the head-to-head wins at one apiece;
however, the Italian had won the encounter in 2009 during the Madrid Open whereas the Czech defeated her last week in the Federation Cup World Group tie. It was a perfect opportunity for the former French Open champion to have her revenge of the earlier loss
but she wasn’t awarded any opportunity to take control of the match.
In a post-match interview, the third seed Czech stated, “I was actually surprised with my serve today - it was one of my best serving days. I prefer to play on quicker surfaces, but I feel at home here in the Porsche Arena. The
surface is similar to the one at the French Open and it helps more aggressive players, unlike many of the outdoor clay courts. I was really sorry at having to withdraw from Stuttgart last year because of an injury, so it's nice everything has started so well
for me here this year."
Petra Kvitova lock horns with the local tennis ace, Angelique Kerber, in the quarter-final.
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