Petra Kvitova outclasses Vania King in 3rd round – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011
Fifth seeded and 2011 Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova outclassed American underdog Vania King in the third round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011. After duelling on outdoor hard courts of the Ariake Colosseum, Tokyo, Japan for
one hour and twenty three minutes, fifth seeded Czech oust the American King in straight sets of 6-1, 7-6(4) on the 28th of September 2011.
Dominating from the very start was Kvitova, who not only won on her serve but managed to capitalize on an early break to reel of a 3-love by the end of the third game and was successful in placing herself on the scoreboard. The
Czech wanted to further increase the gap and so she did just that by breaking her adversary again in the fourth game to secure a lead of 4-0.
The crowd expected Kvitova to win a bagel set victory and so as she held serve in the fifth game she was at 5-love, it was only Kvitova on the scoreboard and there was no sign of King. Finally in the sixth game King was able to
hold serve and bagged a game and the serve switched. After the switch of serve Kvitova was now serving for the opening set and by smashing on advantage, she bagged the opening set with a breadstick victory.
This it was King’s turn to serve and as she opened the second set, the players battled a deuce but eventually King smashed a backhand winner that won her the game and she was able to place herself on the score board. During the
second game Kvitova was able to hold serve and she placed right next to King.
From there onwards the game progressed on even terms and both the players matched a blow for a blow, not letting the either to take a competitive edge over the other. In the following four games the score had tied at 3-3 then at
4-4. The toe-to-toe run between the players moved well into the set and the game was balanced out at 5-5 and then eventually at 6-6 pushing the set into a tiebreaker.
Approaching the tiebreaker, Kvitova was swiftly able to bag an early 2-0 lead extending it to 3-1 moments later. Although King fought tough and managed to reel off three points while holding Kvitova to simply one, the score was
levelled 4-4, it appeared that, it took a lot for the American. Unable to maintain her run, King passed the following two points to the Czech allowing her a 6-4 lead. Serving away the tiebreaker, fifth seeded Kvitova clinched a 7-4 victory to hack away the
match.
The number fifth seeded Czech was expertly able to secure a berth in the quarterfinal where she will be facing the number two seeded Russian Maria Sharapova.
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