Petra Kvitova suffers an early exit from Petra Martic in second round – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2012
Czech number one, Petra Kvitova, had another disappointing exit from Toray Pan Pacific Open in Toyko, Japan, as she stooped to the Croatian underdog opponent, Petra Martic, in the second round clash. The world number five had a
cracking upset in twin sets, settling the final scores at 4-6, 4-6, to crash out of the WTA Premier-level event in the second day’s play.
Seeded at number four in the tournament draw, Kvitova was rated among the hot favourites for winning the title in Tokyo. She received a bye to have a direct access to the second round of Pan Pacific Open but her voyage couldn’t
last even a single round. The 22-year-old Czech laboured for one hour and 28 minutes, eventually finishing on the losing end.
World number 73, Martic, stepped on the hard courts of Tokyo as a small fry and no one expected her to register such huge upset right at the beginning of the coveted Asian event. She displayed top notch performance and cruised
through both sets with commanding ease to register her 19th victory of the running season. Martic stunned the former German number one, Andrea Petkovic, in the opening round battle on Monday and carried on with her winning impetus to oust the hot
favourite Kvitova in the proceeding round.
Since it was their first face off on the WTA Tour, Kvitova wasn’t anticipating such all-round onslaught from the Croat opponent. She coughed five double faults and secured merely 20 out of 42 first serve points in the match. The
fourth seeded Czech crafted a total of eight break points but was denied five times, converting merely three of her chances. On the other hand, Martic cashed in five out of 11 serve breaks to take the better of her superior-ranked opponent.
Kvitova never appear in her true form throughout the contest and was always seen struggling with her ground stroke accuracy. She squandered a number of priceless opportunities to remain at a disadvantage against Martic and eventually
had to submit to let the Croat through to the third round. Martic will face Nadia Petrova in her next encounter.
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