KVITOVA BEATS REZAI

Petra Kvitova has defeated Aravane Rezai of France in the first round of the French Open. Kvitova won the match in three sets by 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

This was Kvitova’s first win over Rezai in two matches. Before this, these two players had played against each other in Rogers Cup a few years back and in that match, Kvitova was defeated. So, she was looking to avenge that loss and she succeeded in that.

In the first set, the first couple of games went with the serve. After that, Kvitova broke her opponent’s serve 4 times in the next 7 games and sealed the opener by 6-3.

In the second set, Kvitova lost her concentration just a little bit. She dropped her serve in the 3rd game to get trailed by 1-2. However, she broke back Rezai in the 6th game to equalize the scores.

The next couple of games went with the serve and at the end of the 8th game; the scorecard was showing 4-4. In the 9th game, Rezai broke Kvitova’s serve again and then, held her serve in the 10th game to win the set by 6-4.

In the third and final set, Kvitova again had a poor start. Her serve was broken in the very first game and she got trailed by 0-1, but, she bounced back in style and with the help of two successive serve breaks, she won the next three games in a row to take a lead of 3-1.

Rezai managed to sneak a breakthrough in the 5th game to decrease the lead to 3-2, but, after that, she was just overpowered by Kvitova. The Czech player got two more breakthroughs (in the 6th and the 8th game) and won the decider by 6-2 to move into the second round where she will face Peng Shuai of China.