Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova in action during her semi-final match against Australia’s Ashleigh Barty yesterday.
Petra Kvitova ended a four-match losing streak against World No.1 Ashleigh Barty to set up a Qatar Total Open final against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
Yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, the two-time Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic made it to her 37th WTA final and her second in Qatar.
The 29-year-old won the blockbuster contest with the Australian 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in one hour and 51 minutes. The Czech will be looking for her 28th singles title in today’s title clash.
The 2018 Qatar champion was on fire yesterday and her huge hitting coupled with her returns, which have been accurate to the point made the difference in the end.
"I pushed myself a lot to go more deeper to the court, not to flying back on the Qatar sign. So I tried that she couldn't have put me away from the baseline that much. So I took time from her and she couldn't do that much with her forehand. So that was kind of the key, to try near by the baseline and just play from there and still pushing to the court," Kvitova said after the match.
"Definitely I am loving Qatar. I think it's showing in my great matches so far here, since I won the tournament two years ago and I'm still feeling great here, so that's good that I didn't forget. Being in a final of such a big tournament, it's great, so I'm really happy how I handle it today. It was a really tough one and I lost to Ash a few times in the past, so finally I got the revenge," she added.
She fired nearly 50 winners to get the job done for her paving her way into the first Premier 5 final of the season.
But it was not easy.
The Czech star was made to work hard and had to find her best to extend her Qatar Open winning streak to 10 consecutive matches.
She won the first set but the Australian bounced back to level the scores and take the contest into the final and deciding set.
The turning point in the decider came about with the score tied at 3-3 agreed Barty.
“I think Petra was able to take it away at the 3-all game. From, I think it was 15-30 she went two return winners in a row and off of good first serves, I didn’t miss my spots and yeah, you tip your hat. That’s high quality tennis and Petra is an exceptional athlete and an exceptional competitor and tennis player and she showed that tonight why she’s a champion,” said the Australian.
“Another great match. It was a contest over a long period with ups and downs. We both had chances and different look in, but, yeah, another ripper,” she added.
Yesterday’s contest was the ninth between the two and was level at 4-4 but Kvitova had revenge of losing to Barty at the Australian Open quarter-finals.
The rivalry between the two has been bifurcated. Kvitova won their first four meetings, including last year in the Brisbane final and the Australian Open quarter-finals.
However, Barty notched her first win over the Czech in last year’s Miami Open quarter-finals en route to that title, and since then, Barty has held the upper hand.
“It was an exceptional match. I think another really great contest with Petra, I love testing myself against her and, yeah, a match in where she played extremely well and took the match away from me in key moments,” said Barty about her loss.
Earlier, Doha debutant ninth seed Sabalenka reached her 10th WTA Tour final with a stunning 6-4, 6-3 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova that took one hour 17 minutes.
The Belarusian held a 2-2 career head-to-head record against the 32-year-old coming into this final-four showdown but had won their only previous meeting on a hard court in Indian Wells in 2018 and replicated that success.
“I’m really happy to be in the final here, especially because I come here first time and made it until the final. It’s really nice and I’m really happy with the level I’m playing right now and well, we’ll see what’s going to happen tomorrow, but for sure I will bring everything I have,” Sabalenka said about her win.
“It was a great match, I expect really great level from her and she played really well and it was not easy.
"And, well, I’m happy with the level I showed today and that I could stay calm,” she added.
On the final contest she said: “Well, it’s a huge challenge playing Petra. She’s like a huge challenge to play against. It’s going to be tough anyway. She is playing really well right now and I’m just looking forward for this challenge. And like I always say, like I’ll bring everything I have and I’ll go for it.”
