Petra Kvitova slashes Daniela Hantuchova in quarterfinal – General Ladies Linz 2011
Top seed and a wild card entrant, Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic stomped over her friend, Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova to reach the semis of the Generali Ladies Linz 2011, a WTA International event from the tier-II series taking
place on the indoor hard courts in Linz, Austria. She registered a 6-2, 6-2 victory over a former world number five, Hantuchova to book a last four spot on Friday.
Meeting each other for the third time on WTA tours, the Wimbledon champion Kvitova triumphed over the 28-year-old Slovakian buddy in straight sets in just under an hour. The Czech not only advanced into the semi-finals but also
extended lead in the head-to-head series by 3-0 against Hantuchova.
"Me and Daniela know each other very well and are good friends. It was tough to play a friend but when you're on the court you just want to win," Kvitova said. "Whoever went for the winner first had the advantage. I played very
well."
Ranked 4th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Kvitova got the first blood in the opening game and remained in the savage mode to bag in following three games as well. Regardless of losing her serve in the sixth
game, the Czech starlet stroke next two games to clinch the opener with a 6-2 score line.
She failed to hold back the only breakpoint faced but capitalised on three out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to progress confidently into the second set. Kvitova also clobbered a higher first serve share of
74 percent as compared to the Slovak’s 61 percent and earned an appreciable 71 percent win on it.
After Hantuchova held her second serve in the third game, 21-year-old Czech unleashed barrage of powerful groundstrokes to reel off next five games in a row and sealed the victory with a 6-2 win again.
She smoothly plucked in entire serves without facing any thorns or breakpoints and capitalised on two out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage. She produced a lower first serve share this time but registered a spectacular
91 percent win on it.
Kvitova will square off against another wild card entrant and the tournament’s third seed, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.
A former world number one, Jankovic saved one out of two breakpoints faced but cashed in on four out of ten breakpoint chances to her advantage to pocket the match with a 6-2, 6-4 score line. The Serb committed more errors but
required one and half hour to ease past Russian Evgeniya Rodina on their second face-to-face.
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