Petra Kvitova outfoxes Carla Suarez Navarro in round one – Brisbane International 2013
Petra Kvitova scored her first win of the new season against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in the opening round of the Brisbane International on Sunday. She clinched the victory in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 and marched on into the
round of 16 of the season-opening tournament.
Lately, the 24-year-old Spaniard had registered her first head-to-head win against the eighth ranked Czech at the second round of the China Open in October. Hence, it was crucial for the 22-year-old Kvitova to bounce back and stamp
her authority especially at the lower ranked players to begin a season at a high-note. She did that in style at the Pat Rafter Arena; smacking five aces and rounding off the encounter in just over an hour and a half.
Kvitova started the proceedings with a quick fire; clinched four points on her opponent’s serve to win a breakthrough in the first game. She cruised along with another breakthrough and grabbed a couple of serve holds to successfully
protect the lead.
The Spaniard fought back with a breakthrough in the sixth game and diminished the trail of 3-4 but lost another breakpoint in the ninth game that ended the opening set in favour of the Czech. Trailing a set down, Navarro received
some input from her coach at the sidelines. She started the second set quite well but couldn’t keep up the momentum.
The sixth seed Czech clinched the first breakthrough of the second set during the sixth game of the second set. She led the scores 4-2; comfortably advanced ahead to make it 5-3. She just had to hold her serve in the following
game to round off the first victory of the new season but the 34th ranked Spaniard held her from doing so.
Navarro fought back to win a break point and brought the scores back on even terms. However, she failed to secure a serve hold in the following game that led to her fourth head-to-head loss to the Czech.
Petra Kvitova will lock horns against the Russian professional, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, in the second round of the tournament on Monday.
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