Petra Kvitova slams Marion Bartoli in round three – Rogers Cup 2012
World number six, Petra Kvitova, scuttled past the 10th ranked French star, Marion Bartoli, in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 to clear the third round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
On the eve of Friday, the Czech starlet clinched her second triumph over the French starlet taking just an hour at the hard courts; equalized the head-to-head scores to 2-2. It was a commanding performance coupled with some dismal
show from the 27-year-old French who was below par than usual.
Bartoli opened up the match proceedings. To her displeasure, she lost the breakpoint right away; managing to win just one point on her maiden serve game. Kvitova eased to a serve hold and extended the lead to 2-0. She squandered
a breakpoint in the following game but managed to convert the second opportunity in her favour and cruised away to lead of 3-0.
An easy serve hold helped the 22-year-old Czech to post a resounding lead of 4-0. Just a mere serve hold for Bartoli helped her to avoid a bagel but the breadstick was on the cards.
Kvitova made sure that her rival didn’t get anything apart from a single serve hold by bagging the third breakthrough of the match in the seventh game to round off the opening set.
A twist of luck was required for the double-handed French powerhouse but no switch in fortune was witnessed in the second half of the match as well.
The Czech cruised away to a lead of 3-0 courtesy a couple of thumping serve holds and a breakpoint in the middle.
Bartoli bagged a serve hold but that was the only thing she managed to take away from the second set as her opponent won another breakpoint in the sixth game held her serve to win the encounter.
Kvitova said, "It wasn't easy. She's a Top 10 player and she's playing very well, so it's never easy. But I knew how I had to play. I played against her in Hopman Cup and remembered her strengths and weaknesses. I'm really glad
how I played. It was much better than how I was playing in the first round."
Kvitova awaits the winner of Tamira Paszek and Carla Suarez Navarro for a playoff in the quarter-final.
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