TENNIS WTA BEIJING – Petra Kvitova beat Roberta Vinci 7-6 6-4 after a tight quarter final match at the China Open, a Premier Mandatory Tournament, to extend her winning streak to seven consecutive matches. Kvitova set up a semifinal clash against Samantha Stosur who took advantage of a walkover after Serena Williams was forced to withdraw before the quarter final. Diego Sampaolo
WTA Premier Mandatory China Open Beijing
Petra Kvitova beat Roberta Vinci 7-6 6-4 after a tight quarter final match at the China Open, a Premier Mandatory Tournament, to extend her winning streak to seven consecutive matches, including her recent triumph last week in Wuhan.
Roberta Vinci has had a tough season so far falling to World Number 44 in the WTA Ranking but she has enjoyed a great week in Beijing in which she beat Agnieszka Radwanska, clinching her first win against a top 10 player in 2014, and Ekaterina Makarova. The Italian player stormed to a 5-1 15-30 lead on Kvitova’s serve but this year’s Wimbledon champion clawed her way back and forced the match to the tie-break after coming within two points from losing the first set. In the tie-break Kvitova won six consecutive points to storm to 6-1 before hitting an ace to seal the win in the breaker with 7-2.
Vinci went up 2-0 at the start of the second set. but Kvitova won four consecutive games to take a 4-2 lead. Vinci drew level to 4-4. The World Number 3 player got a break in the second set but Vinci did not give up and earned a double break point as Kvitova was serving for the match at 5-4 15-40. Kvitova saved it with an ace before winning the next two points to wrap up the match. Vinci fought until the end against one of the best tennis players at the moment.
“Roberta is not my favourite player to play against. She has a different game that does not suit me. She has a great slice and she gives me a lot of trouble. When I am not serving, it’s just tough to play against her”, said Kvitova.
Kvitova set up a semifinal clash against Samantha Stosur who took advantage of a walkover after Serena Williams was forced to withdraw before the quarter final because of a left knee injury. This is the second consecutive week that Serena withdraws from a tournament after pulling out of Wuhan due to a viral illness
“I started to feel pain. It did not feel well last last night. I almost did not go on court. I did at the last minute. I think it made it a little worse. It throbs just sitting. I felt it mostly serving because I am landing on my knee. That was really killer for me. I didn’t do a tremendous amount of moving last night. I just tried to move as little as possible. I haven’t had a scan yet but I will do that and see what the problem is “ said Serena Williams at the press conference.
Stosur has qualified for her biggest WTA semifinal of the year after a perfect week in which she has not dropped a single set and beat Francesca Schiavone, Caroline Wozniacki and Alizé Cornet. She has already played in two semifinals this year in Hobart and New Haven where she lost against Kvitova, her next rival on Saturday. Kvitova leads 6-1 (4-0 on hard-court matches) in her head-to-head matches against Stosur.
Maria Sharapova won the first set with a bagel against her compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova but she faced a tougher challenge in the second set when she went down 3-4. Sharapova fought back by reeling off three consecutive games to win the second set with 6-4 setting up a semifinal match against Ana Ivanovic who took advantage of a walkover after Simona Halep pulled out of the tournament due to a hip injury.
