Petra Kvitova wins her maiden WTA title of the 2012 season at Montreal – Tennis News
Finally, some glimpses of form and class were seen from the Czech number one, Petra Kvitova, at the final of the Rogers Cup on Monday evening. The fifth seed blazed her way past the former French Open champion, Li Na, to claim
her maiden WTA title of the running season in Montreal, Canada.
Suffering from a terrible slump of form throughout the circuit, Kvitova reached her first title match of the year after dumping the former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, in the semis. She was to face the number
10th seed Chinese, Li Na, who outplayed the other 16th seeded Czech contender, Lucie Safarova, in the round of four. She was also sharing the similar fate as Kvitova was, riding a drastic title drought since the start of the 2012 WTA
season.
With both finalists aiming to bring an end to their title drought, it proved out to be a classic battle. After a fierce battle in the three-setter, Kvitova eventually came out as the deserving winner, settling the final score line
at 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, in her favour. After her emphatic victory on Monday’s eve, the Czech number one climbed up one spot in the WTA Premier Rankings to clinch the world number five rank.
"The first set was a really big fight - every game was very close. Maybe I was a little bit lucky to win the first set," Kvitova said after the match. "She played very well in the second set. She was very aggressive without any
mistakes. I didn't really realize - but that was really good tennis from her," Kvitova said. "Between the second and third sets, when I was in the locker room changing my clothes, I knew I had to be the first one to attack the balls and play much faster than
in the second set. I also needed a higher first serve percentage."
A title victory at such coveted tournament prior to the US Open can prove to be extremely vital for the Grand Slam preparations for Kvitova. Her sublime run in Montreal has been quite impressive one, as she out played a number
of world class acts, including Marion Bartoli, Caroline Wozniacki and Li Na. The Chinese number also didn’t go empty handed from the Rogers Cup, as her runner-up finish in Montreal awarded her enough points to break back in the Top-10 rankings this week.
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