Victoria Azarenka vs Petra Kvitova – Final Preview: WTA Championships 2011
In a true clash of the titans, first time finalist Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic meets another debutant Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in the final match of the 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships at the Sinan Erden Dome
in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday, October 30th.
Never since the Williams sisters, have two players so evenly poised met for a high profile match such as the final at Istanbul on Sunday.
World number three Kvitova standing on a nine match winning streak was the player to watch in 2011. With a resounding five titles under her belt, Kvitova recorded stupendous victories in 2011 making news with big wins over several
big names. Starting her year at Brisbane, Kvitova won her career second and season first title defeating Andrea Petkovic. Little did she know of what was to come. A month later, the Czech won another title at Paris defeating former world number one, Belgian
mama Kim Clijsters. Kvitova met and defeated Azarenka in the final of Madrid to add yet another feather to her cap. However, the best was yet to come.
In June, the Czech destroyed Russian number one Maria Sharapova to clinch her maiden Grand Slam title winning at Wimbledon. The Czech’s dominant form continued to rise as she bagged yet another title before season close after defeating
Dominika Cibulkova in the final of the Linz event.
Adding to her best form ever, Kvitova comes into the match with a 3-2 lead in the head-to-head and a three match winning streak over the Belarusian. Marking the start of an important rivalry with the Belarusian, Kvitova lost at
Prague and Melbourne in 2008 and 2009 respectively. However, turning the tables in 2010, Kvitova won in the third round at Wimbledon. A year later, Kvitova added two more wins over the Belarusian winning at Madrid and the semi-final at Wimbledon.
This year, Kvitova is playing in her first ever tour championships event. Living her dream debut here, Kvitova moved into the semi-final after three successive round robin wins over Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska and Vera
Zvonareva and a semi-final win over Samantha Stosur. The Czech has done away with all the big names and is surely the most deserving of the title win here.
However, Azarenka is not without her accolades to match her own claim to the title. Although the current world number four has yet to win a Grand Slam event, she has managed to bag three titles in the season winning them at Madrid,
Marbella and Luxembourg. Throughout the year, the Belarusian has made it to quarterfinals or more of almost all of the events.
Although playing her first tour championships final, Azarenka is not a debutant at the event. Qualifying for the third straight year, Azarenka has recorded wins over former world number Jelena Jankovic twice in her previous years
of the event. This time around, Azarenka successfully defeated Samantha Stosur and Li Na in the round robin matches losing only to alternate Marion Bartoli. However, the Belarusian bounced back in the semi-final as she destroyed Vera Zvonareva.
Prediction: Evenly matched, the outcome of the battle can go either way for the two extremely talented and surely inform professionals. Not only are the two players fighting it out for the coveted title here but
also for the 2nd ranking spot. Although standing on equal footing given their current forms, Kvitova’s three match winning streak gives her a certain edge over the Belarusian.
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