Petra Kvitova slays Varvara Lepchenko to reach the quarter-final draw – French Open 2012
Last year’s Wimbledon champion, fourth seed Petra Kvitova blasted her way past the 63rd ranked American contender, Varvara Lepchenko, in the fourth round of the French Open on Monday. The 22-year-old Czech number one wrapped up her emphatic victory in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, to earn a place in the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam event in Paris, France.
Finally some touch of sheer class and dominance has been seen from the world number four. Kvitova had a dismal season so far due to persistent multiple injuries but her sublime run at the Roland Garros has been extremely promising. She has lost just one set in the four matches she played en route to the quarter-finals and is looking very strong to lift the coveted gold in Paris.
On the other hand, Lepchenko has been the surprise package of the tournament so far, as she outplayed two seeded contenders to reach the fourth round. The American first defeated the former world number one, Jelena Jankovic, in the second round and then went on to hunt down the 2010 French open champion, Francesca Schiavone, in the third round brawl. It was expected that Lepchenko will give some tough time to the fourth seed Czech but Kvitova stood too strong for her to be surpassed. The unseeded American secured just three games in the entire matchup before succumbing to the belligerent left-hander.
Kvitova had an ordinary serve precision of just 53 per cent in the contest but she only dropped three points on the first serve, clinching 21 out of 24, en route to victory. She had six break opportunities in the matchup and converted four of them to end the sublime voyage of Lepchenko. The American contender utterly failed to register a single break point throughout the brawl and coughed 15 unforced errors to finish on the losing side in the end.
Up next for Kvitova is the Kazakh qualifier, Yaroslava Shvedova, in the quarter-final round of the French Open. Shvedova defeated the defending champion, Li Na of China, in the fourth round encounter, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0, to book a date with the world number four.
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