A TWO hour come-from behind win against fifth seed Petra Kvitova helped eighth seed American Madison Keys to book a spot in the Brisbane International final. In doing so, she stopped an all-Czech Republic final with her last opponent being world number two, Karolina Pliskova.

Keys’ triumph took right on two hours to complete, dropping the first set before taking control and winning in three close sets, 3-6 6-2 6-3 to advance through to the decider in Brisbane. It was the first time the pair has played since 2016, where they played on three occasions with Keys winning two of them. The American also won their only encounter on Australian soil back at the Australian Open in 2015. In the match itself, Keys was more consistent on serve, winning 60 per cent of her first serves, but the crafy left-handed Czech was still able to break even off her American opponents’ serve, winning 54.1 per cent of the points. Based off the first set, it looked as though Kvitova would go through fairly unscathed, recording 71.9 per cent of her first serves in, and dominating when she was forced to use a second serve – winning 77.8 per cent of the time. The tables turned in the second set, and by the third set, Keys’ serve went up another notch, producing three aces and winning 64 per cent of her first serves, compared to Kvitova’s 30.8 per cent. It was a rare blunder from the Grand Slam winner, who won just four points off her first serve as she was broken three times, and while she broke twice herself, went down after being in a strong position early.

If that game was considered an eye-opening encounter, then the top three battle between Pliskova and world number three, Naomi Osaka was an absolute epic. Until the third set, neither player could be separated as the forced their way to two tiebreakers before Pliskova finally struck the winning blow in the last set during a 6-7 7-6 6-2 victory to move through to the Brisbane International final. Both players are well known for their serving ability and they showed it in the match, producing a combined 31 aces, but also 10 double faults as they made it incredibly difficult for their opponent to win off the opposing serve. In the end, it was Pliskova’s ability to make more of break point opportunities – breaking three times to Osaka’s once – and led in both first serve percentage (68.5 to 60.2) and first serve points won (75.9 to 67.6). The result also meant Pliskova moved one win clear of her opponent in the head-to-head, after losing to the Japanese Grand Slam winner at the Australian Open 12 months ago with Osaka going on to take out the title. It came after Pliskova defeated Osaka in the 2018 Tokyo Final the previous year. Now Pliskova moves through to face Keys in the final, with both these players no doubt huge contenders for the Australian Open with Osaka of course the defending champion.