Google News St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy: Petra Kvitova stunned; Jelena Ostapenko reaches last-8
by ABBEY JOHNSON | VIEW 3231
The last remaining second-round matches were played on Thursday at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy. Two seeded players crashed out of the tournament but in totally contrasting manners. Third seed Elena Rybakina, who was to play her round-of-16 match against Tereza Martincova, announced that she was withdrawing from the tournament because of illness thus giving the Czech a walkover into the quarter-finals.
Martincova will play Irina-Camelia Begu for a chance to reach the semi-finals. In the second round, Begu upset another Czech, the sixth seed Petra Kvitova. The Romanian pocketed a 6-4, 6-0 victory in 69 minutes.
St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy: Petra Kvitova's road comes to an end
Heading into the match, it was the former world no.
2 who boasted of a 5-0 win-to-loss record against Begu. However, in the Russian city, Begu turned tables on her, exploiting Kvitova’s patchy game thoroughly. The world no. 56 raced to a 4-0 lead in the opening set but was pegged back by Kvitova who brought the set on par at four-all.
However, a second break on Kvitova’s serve helped Begu take the opener. The second set was entirely one-sided as Begu didn’t face a single break point and converted three of the four break points she had on her opponent’s serve.
Meanwhile, Begu’s compatriot, Jaqueline Cristian, however, fell in her pre-quarter-final match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich. The Belarusian came through 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 11 minutes. While Sasnovich won 71% of her first-serve points to Cristian’s 56%, both players struggled to win points off their second serve.
Of the two, Sasnovich managed to win 28% of her second-serve points while Cristian fared marginally better, winning 34%. Sasnovich saved four of the six break points she faced while converting six of the eight break points she had on the Romanian’s serve.
For a place in the semi-finals of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy, Sasnovich will play Jelena Ostapenko. The seventh seed dominated Andrea Petkovic to reach the quarters, winning 6-1, 6-2 in just 58 minutes. The Latvian saved all five break points she faced while making good of four of the seven break-point chances on the German’s serve.