Petra Kvitova proved to be a better player in the highly anticipated first round of the Stuttgart Open between the Grand Slam champion and the recent Grand Slam finalist.
The player who has bagged two Grand Slam titles from the Czech Republic must be in the best shape possible to overthrow the 2021 Australian Open runner-up Brady and sure enough, he did. Firing 27 winners in a match that lasted 92 minutes, the seventh seed secured a 6-4 6-3 win over world number 14 Brady.
Thanks to the win, the reigning champions – having won the last edition of the 2019 Stuttgart Open – bagged their third win against the top 20 in 2021 and continued to dominate head to head against Brady by 3-0.
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The world number 10 didn’t completely control the match, but he secured break point chances at 2-2 and 3-3 in the first set before finally claiming the set.
In the second set, a fourth game involving six deuces with serve in Brady’s hands proved to be the decisive game. The Czech national blocked four chances for the American to equalize 2-2, before breaking the American for the second time, and only dropped four points from serve in the remainder of the second set.
“It was a great match and a formidable opponent for the first half, for sure,” said Petra Kvitova.
“At the start, the matches were quite tight and I thought my service game was really fierce, and I think on several occasions I was quite lucky.”
“I took chances to break it to win the first set and that was probably the key that I was doing my best compared to before.”
Runners up for the Australian Open this season secured two match point chances at 2-5, but have been unable to avoid a fourth successive loss since appearing in the final of this season’s Australian Open.
Seventh seed Kvitova will look to extend her winning streak at the Stuttgart Open by taking on Greek national Maria Sakkari in the second round. The pair’s head to head drew 2-2 and Sakkari won their only clay-court encounter via retirement when they met in Rome for the 2019 season.
“Sakkari is definitely a tough opponent, especially on clay. He really liked it. We played in the clay-court tournament that was being held in Rome. We have also met three times before,” said Kvitova.
“He has excellent service for clay-court, his slice and dropshot are amazing too. He can play anything. Fighting him will be quite a challenge, but I’m really looking forward to it.”
