Czech women’s tennis star Petra Kvitova has struggled on the hardcourts of North America, but on Monday, she won the Rogers Cup with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 defeat of Li Na in Toronto. It was hard-fought match between two of the top players in the game, but after a poor second set, Kvitova broke Li in the third to take a 4-2 lead and move on to bring home the title.
2012 Rogers Cup: Petra Kvitova Defeats Li Na For Title
Petra Kvitova defeated Li Na in three sets at the Rogers Cup on Monday night to secure her first WTA win of the year.
Despite her WTA success, Kvitova had not made it past the third round of a North American outdoor tournament since 2009. After the win, Kvitova spoke about the boost that the tournament victory will provide her heading into the year’s final slam, via Chris Iorfida of CBC Sports:
“It’s great to have a good result in North America before the U.S. Open and I’m very glad that finally I played well [here],” said Kvitova, who went just 3-4 in previous years at the Rogers Cup.
[...] “I hope this is good preparation,” she said. “I played some good matches here and I hope that will continue, but every tournament is different and every player is tough, so we’ll see.”
Kvitova has reached the quarterfinals in each of this year's Slams, as well as at the Olympics. But there were plenty of questions about her ability to translate that success to the hardcourt in North America. Despite a second-set slip up against Li Na, she answered some of those questions in a tough final that resulted in her first tour win of the year.
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