EIGHTH seed Czech, Petra Kvitova has booked a spot in the Qatar Open final after downing Australian world number one, Ash Barty in three sets. In a rematch of the Australian Open quarter final – where instead it was the home nation star who progressed – Kvitova fought her way through a second set challenge from Barty to eventually get home in a thrilling 6-4 2-6 6-4 to play Belarusian ninth seed, Aryna Sabalenka in the final having had an easier time than Kvitova through to the last match of the tournament.

Kvitova took an hour and 51 minutes to win, eventually triumphing after a crucial break in the third deciding set. She was more ruthless on serve, putting down seven aces while Barty uncharacteristically had just the one. The number one seed also was unable to stop Kvitova from breaking, with the Czech taking all four chances to break the Australian, while Barty split her four breaks from eight opportunities. Kvitova led all the main statistical categories, and while Barty was not far behind, the left hander was just that little bit better.

In the other semi-final, Sabalenka got up over another Grand Slam winner in Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova. With 13 years between them, they are at the opposite ends of their carer, but few will forget how dominant Kuznetsova was at one point, keeping in mind she won a couple of Grand slams and was a regular in the last eight at Roland Garros. To get to the final, Kuznetsova downed fourth seed, Belinda Bencic which reversed the result from St Petersburg. She was no match for the 21-year-old Belarusian in the final however, with Sabalenka winning 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 13 minutes. While she did not serve an ace, she broke four times to two and won 72.1 per cent of her first serve points to the Russian’s 51.1 per cent which was the ultimate difference in the end.

SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:

[8] Petra Kvitova (CZE) defeated [1] Ash Barty (AUS) 6-4 2-6 6-4
[9] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 6-4 6-3