Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching yesterday won a showdown with her elder sister in the first round of the doubles at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, while in the singles Petra Kvitova on Tuesday began her title defense with a revenge win.
Unseeded Chan and Yang Zhaoxuan of China thwarted a fightback by third seeds Latisha Chan and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada to complete a 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 victory in 1 hour, 21 minutes on the grass courts at Edgbaston Priory Club.
The cross-strait duo saved 12 of 14 break points and converted two of five to advance to a quarter-final against either Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Romania’s Raluca Olaru or Elise Mertens of Belgium and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands.
Photo: Reuters
In the singles on Tuesday, fourth seed Kvitova sent out a warning to the other Wimbledon contenders with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Johanna Konta, who last year became the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon singles semi-finals in almost 40 years.
Konta had triumphed the last time they met two years ago in Eastbourne, England.
Their meeting this time at the Nature Valley Classic was at a venue where Kvitova’s resourceful performance last year with a damaged left hand — after a knife attack at her home in the Czech Republic in December 2016 — proved that she would be able to play professional tennis again.
The penetration of her flat-hit driving on Tuesday, along with her ability to attack the net and the confidence with which she dealt with a difficult opening opponent, all marked Kvitova as a serious contender for Wimbledon, which starts in less than two weeks.
“It was a big win for sure, but in the first round here we have to expect tough matches and that is good, because it makes you show good things from the beginning,” Kvitova said.
The Czech broke serve at the first attempt and, after losing that advantage, broke again with two of the fiercest forehand drives likely to be struck all week.
Konta fought hard and saved four set points, but soon Kvitova was motoring on into the second set with a break point in the second game which Konta saved with a sudden, neatly timed drop-shot.
However, seven games later, Kvitova’s constant serve-returning pressure brought its own reward. Twice it put Konta under extra pressure and twice in a row it produced double faults.
That left Kvitova to serve out for the match, which she concluded nicely with a drop-shot approach and a sharp reflex volley.
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