Petra Kvitova ousts Marina Erakovic to reach round two – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Third seed, Petra Kvitova, dumped New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic in straight sets at the Mutua Madrid Open 2012 on Monday. She nudged up a 6-2, 6-3 victory against the Croatian-born to breeze into the second round at this blue clay court event which is part of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Tour 2012.
The Czech number one needed 67 minutes to outfox Erakovic in their second meeting. The contestants last battled each other at the Monzon WTA event four years ago and after pocketing this match, Kvitova improved to a 2-0 lifetime in the head-to-head series against the Kiwi.
"It was a good start to the tournament for me," Kvitova reflected after the match. "I have nice memories from last year here, but I'm not really thinking that I'm defending champion, because every week is a new week for us. It's different playing on blue clay, but not that different really - it's still clay, and Madrid and Rome are going to be very good preparation for Roland Garros coming up."
Kvitova stormed into Park Manzanares and reeled off the opening four games in a row through exquisite forehands from her arsenal of skills. She then plucked her remaining serves and clicked the opener by winning six games to two.
The left-handed Czech kept momentum rolling into the proceeding set and earned the desiderated break in the third game to take the upper hand. She maintained her intensity after that and not only slid her remaining serves but cashed in another break chance in the last game to bag the set with a 6-3 win.
Summing up the defending champion’s performance, Kvitova fired five aces and clobbered a better first serve share of 64 per cent as opposed to her rival’s 60 per cent. She superbly availed 23 out of 28 points on it and brushed off all three breakpoints she faced to earn the glory.
Up next for Kvitova is her qualifying compatriot, Lucie Hradecka, who upset the Chinese star, Shuai Peng, in a three-set mouth-watering match in almost two hours.
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