Petra Kvitova continued to impress with her sizzling form in 2019 as she stormed into the semi-final of the Australian Open with a straight-set win over Ash Barty.
Kvitova registered a 6-1, 6-4 win over Australia’s Barty in just over an hour to march into the last-four stage of the tournament.
Interestingly, Kvitova has been in some of the form of her career, winning six titles over the past 12 months including one at Sydney earlier this year. And in that Sydney International match, Kvitova had overcome Barty in three tough sets in the final to ensure a win.
With this Kvitova win and Simona Halep’s loss at the hands of Serena Williams yesterday, the WTA Rankings will now have a new number one next week. Kvitova now has more points than Halep but Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova have all got a chance to take over the number one spot.
In her post-match chat, Kvitova apologised to the home fans for taking out their local player.
She said:
“First of all, sorry guys for beating Ashleigh. I started very well, served well and took the first break. She didn’t give me anything for free in the second set and I definitely had to fight until the end.”
“Ash has great slice from the backhand, so I had to be very low and hit it as well as I could. I needed to play well from the backhand as well.”
How about that angle, @ashbar96?
She’s hanging tough in the second set vs. #Kvitova after losing the first. The Aussie holds for 3-2.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/pcFVJB1VRs
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 22, 2019
Kvitova will now take on USA’s Danielle Collins, who herself made it to her first ever Grand Slam semi-final. She overcame the loss of the first set against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to beat her Russian opponent 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 and set up a date with an opponent she had played as recently as the 2019 Brisbane International earlier this year.
It was a round one encounter in which Kvitova had to fight back from the brink, winning 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 win advance.
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