Petra Kvitova vs. Sara Errani: Quarter-Final Preview – Australian Open 2012
World number two, Petra Kvitova, takes on the 48th ranked Italian, Sara Errani, in the quarter-final of the Australian Open tournament on Wednesday. It is expected to be an enthralling battle between the prolific tennis
performers in the field of tennis. Surprisingly these two players haven’t faced each other before so there will no psychological advantage to any of the contestants but on paper Kvitova is definitely the strongest competitor with the superior ranking and greater
shot making armoury under her belt.
The Czech tennis ace owns a massive advantage of being a left-handed player, which is always a problem for a tennis player to deal with. There are not many left-handed players in the field of tennis so it is very difficult to adjust
abruptly. Stunningly both the world number two’s at the moment, men and women, are left-handed players so that gives a slight idea of the advantage they have over other competitors.
This year’s Australian Open campaign for Kvitova was mind-blowing. She defeated the likes of two prettiest and most talented ladies in the world of tennis, Maria Kirilenko in the third round and Ana Ivanovic in the fourth round.
The Serbian tennis ace, Ivanovic, was shining bright throughout the tournament and it was almost like we were taken back to those golden days of her when she was rated at the top in the world rankings. Kvitova nailed her down easily is straight sets; it was
a massive showdown and now she faces a relatively easy draw in the quarter-finals against Errani. She should easily be able to surpass this stage and cruise into the semis.
On the other hand, Errani fought extremely hard to place a berth in the quarter-finals. She defeated the likes of Nadia Petrova and Sorana Cirstea in the second and third round of the contest respectively. More importantly, she
ended the eight match unbeaten run of the 38th ranked Chinese superstar, Jie Zheng, in the fourth round of the tournament. It is good to know that she have gobbled up majors upsets to her name but she is up against the hot favourite player to win
the title in the quarter-finals especially after the departure of reigning world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, in the quarters on Tuesday.
The Czech professional player has just lost a single game from her last ten encounters, whilst the Italian has lost three matches from her last ten. Both players are in sublime form but considering the fact that Kvitova has been
in search for her first Grand Slam title for quite some time now and has prepared herself extremely hard during the season break, she is going to reign supreme over the Italian.
The only chance that Italian has against the left-handed star is to force her play around the net. If Errani manages to manipulate the proceedings and slow the tempo of the game to her level, she is definitely in with a slight
chance to register another thumping upset but it requires immense power and strength to stay focused on the task throughout the match.
Initial few games will be extremely important and the one who takes the first two breaks will place a berth in the semis but Kvitova stays the hot favourite to win the contest no matter what happens at the courts.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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