Is Petra Kvitova seeing the light at the end of the Australian Open title?
"...I didn't really imagine to be back on this great stadium and playing with the best. It is great," Petra Kvitova had responded to the U.S. Davis Cup captain and commentator Jim Courier. She had just defeated Ashleigh Barty 6-1, 6-4 to move to the semifinals when he had sparked an emotional moment mentioning how far she'd come since a few years ago. She had endured a home invasion injury. In the 2017 French Open, she had made her return on court after five months of her attack to take a bit over an hour to defeat Julia Boserup ranked 86 in the world.
She has miraculously come far as her surgeon Radek Kerble had given his prognosis of Kvitova's return back to the courts saying "The chances of Petra's hand healing well enough for her to be able to play tennis again were very low for multiple reasons." The Czech has defied it all and her performance today is far past remarkable. She's won six titles last season in 2018, more than many players have won in their careers.
It is here at Melbourne that she's taken on mostly top players to have done away with them in only two sets. Kvitova faced Belinda Bencic in the third round, a player who recuperated well from wrist surgery had made quite a resurgence on the court and can be a handful, but the Czech dismantled her game smartly. It was the next day that Kvitova dealt with the newcomer and young phenom Amanda Anisimova to only allow her three games the entire match. Ashleigh Barty, a native Australian lady had much of the crowd on her side, but Barty's game was a diluted version of the performance she had done when playing against Maria Sharapova and won 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Kvitova came on aggressive from the start and only allowed Barty one game as she led the entire time in the opening set. Barty had made many unforced errors and struggled to capture games but Kvitova was too clever and won the opener 6-1. Kvitova had found her level of confidence on playing Barty and had used the Australian's unforced errors as a gift for racking up points. Kvitova came up to net surprising Barty and continued to maintain the aggression winning the second set and the match 6-4. The Czech had won her fifth round in a row without losing a set and feeling self-assured of going into the semifinal of a tournament she never thought she'd ever play in again. But the Czech is just turning the corner on being in the final to meet up with the surprising and defiant Danielle Collins in the semis. Both players have their goals and only the most consistent and skilful one will win. Who that may be in the end is anyone's guess.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2MsnOdI
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