Miami Open: Ashleigh Barty first into QFs, to face Petra Kvitova
Twelfth seed Ashleigh Barty was the first player to make it to the 2019 Miami Open quarter-finals in the women's singles draw. On Monday, the Australian upset seventh seed Kiki Bertens 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday in an hour and 53 minutes.
At the start of play, Barty quickly gained an upper hand in the match breaking Bertens' serve to race to a 3-1 lead in the opening set. However, Bertens turned the set around with some quick adjustment and went on to take the first set. The second set raced away from the Dutchwoman as quickly as the first and this time around, there were no turnarounds forthcoming. Barty went on to clinch the set 6-3. The third set saw a brief exchange of service breaks but Bertens' game imploded so badly that she could only salvage two games – one of which came by way of a service break – before Barty served out the win in the eighth game of the set.
The win put Barty on the threshold of a top-10 breakthrough in the WTA rankings, with a clash against Petra Kvitova in the last eight. This will be the third meeting this year between the two players, with the Czech winning both their previous meetings – in the final of the Sydney International and the quarter-final of the Australian Open. Apart from these two matches, the two have faced each other two other times previously, with Kvitova winning those matches as well, maintaining a perfect 4-0 head-to-head against Barty.
Kvitova defeats Garcia
The third seed had a pretty one-sided match against Caroline Garcia but had to overcome a long rain delay to win 6-3, 6-3. Most of the match was completed before the rain break and following resumption of play, only two more games (in the second set) were played before Kvitova emerged victorious.
Kvitova saved the only break point she faced in the course of the match and won high margin of points off both her serves – 77% and 70% off her first and second serves respectively. While Garcia struggled to do so likewise, she fared poorly when it came to points won off her second serves, winning merely 44% points.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2TtmVna
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