St Petersburg Ladies Trophy: Kvitova survives scare as Alexandrova continues run
THREE more seeds have booked their spot in the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy quarter finals with the completion of Round of 16 yesterday. In a day of largely expected results and straight sets wins, there was one surprise three-setter.
Third seed, Petra Kvitova took two hours and 16 minutes to shake off determined Belgian, Alison Van Uytvanck with the 25-year-old world number 47 pushing the top 10 star all the way in three sets, 7-6 1-6 6-2. The first set went to a tiebreaker after both players broke twice, and Van Uytvanck showed she was not going to be an easy beat. The tiebreaker itself was one-sided as Kvitova won 7-1 to win despite the challenge, though her opponent turned around the momentum to run away with the second set in stunning fashion. Van Uytvanck won it 6-1, as Kvitova’s serve dropped to only claim 41.5 percent of her service points in the set, broken three times to one, but having to save 10 break point opportunities as she was constantly pressured by her opponent. Despite the scores level at a set apiece, Kvitova pushed on to win the deciding set 6-2, controlling her serve and only dropping seven points for the set while braking three times to one on her way to a comfortable set, and overall match win.
Other seeds had an easier time of it, with second seed Kiki Bertens needing just 57 minutes to roll past Russian opponent, Veronika Kudermetova 6-1 6-2, while Greece’s Maria Sakkari booked a spot in the quarter finals with a 6-2 6-4 victory over France’s Alize Cornet. In the somewhat surprise result, Ekaterina Alexandrova downed seventh seed Donna Vekic, though with the Russian’s form this season it is easy to see why. In the quarter finals Sakkari now takes on number one seed Belinda Bencic, Bertens face Russian teen Anastasia Potapova, while Alexandrova and Kvitova go head-to-head.
Round of 16 Results:
[2] K. Bertens (NED) defeated V. Kudermetova (RUS) 6-1 6-2
[3] P. Kvitova (CZE) defeated A. Van Uytvanck (BEL) 7-6 1-6 6-2
[6] M. Sakkari (GRE) defeated A. Cornet (FRA) 6-2 6-4
E. Alexandrova (RUS) defeated [7] D. Vekic (CRO) 6-1 7-5
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