Petra Kvitova wins her 1st title of 2019 and the 26th of her fantastic career after an extremely tough final against the world no.15 Ashleigh Barty.
The Czech didn’t drop a single set in the entire week to be shocked in the opener of the final after the Australian won 6-1. However, Kvitova got full advantage of her extensive experience, and she managed to get back in style to win the second set (7-5) and bring the affair to a tough decider.
The third set was a sheer dogfight especially after Ashleigh Barty conquered a 3-0 lead. Eventually, Petra stayed cool to break back the 5th game (2-3) before another drama happened after Kvitova failed to serve out the match twice when she was leading 5-4 and 6-5. The final went to a decisive tiebreak, and this time the Czech didn’t fail to win the contest 1-6 7-5 7-6 (3) after 2 hours and 19 minutes.
I left everything out of there.
After the match, Petra commented
“I left everything out there; I was cramping in the end. It was such a great final, to be honest, I think. It was a big fight until the end. That’s the way a final should be.
It was pretty hard. [Barty] mixed it a lot. She was different opponent which I had before, as well. So it was a bit challenging this time, for sure.
I feel sorry for her that she couldn’t make it today, unfortunately, but she really put everything out there today, and she really played a great game.”
There is no much time for Petra to celebrate as she needs to head to Melbourne where she will face Magdalena Rybarikova in the opener.
NO.26
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