Petra Kvitova earned her first WTA title in six months and the tenth in her career by winning the battle against Sara Errani. Before last week’s Doha, Kvitova hadn’t won back-to-back matches since the 2012 US Open, but after reaching the quarterfinals at the Qatar Total Open, the Czech was victorious five matches in a row to claim the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title.
The final had big momentum swings, but Kvitova’s was the closing one and she won the match 6-2 1-6 6-1. After opening the encounter with a 6-2 1-0 lead, Kvitova lost six straight games to Errani, but in the third set she took charge again and finished the match by grabbing five consecutive games.
In the first round Kvitova routed Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 6-1, then overcame Ana Ivanovic 7-5 7-6(1) in the second round, beat third seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals 6-2 6-4, eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 6-4 in the semis, and finally Errani to increase her perfect record against the Italian to 4-0. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
very good play by Petra Kvitova
A shaky second set. but she worked it out in the end. It is really great to see Kvitova playing much better after a shaky start to 2013.