St. Petersburg: Petra Kvitova moves into QF with lopsided win over Van Uytvanck

Ekaterina Alexandrova upset seventh seed Donna Vekic in their second-round match at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Thursday. Alexandrova won in straight sets 6-1, 7-5 in an hour and 20 minutes. Vekic was the only seed to lose on Thursday.

Alexandrova will play third seed Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals. The Czech outlasted Alison Van Uytvanck after two hours and 16 minutes of play, winning 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-2. The opening set played out taxingly and involved Kvitova saving a breakpoint to claim a lead in the match.

After the match, Kvitova said, “Definitely, it was a tough one. I’ve never played Alison before, and she’d already played one match on the surface, and for me, it was the first one, so that's always a bit challenging. It took me a while to get used to the court. It kind of suits her game as well as mine.”

If the 11th ranked Kvitova beats Alexandrova and reaches the semi-final, she will make her way back into the top-10 of the WTA ranking.

Sixth seed Maria Sakkari defeated Alize Cornet in the second round. The Greek won 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 25 minutes. Sakkari will play the top-seed Belinda Bencic in the last-eight.

Finally, second seed Kiki Bertens won against Veronika Kudermetova 6-1, 6-2 in 57 minutes to advance to the quarter-finals. Bertens will play qualifier Anastasia Potapova in the quarters.

Photo Credit: WTA Twitter

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