HOBART, Australia - On Wednesday she was down and out but she toughed it out, and that grit and determination sure paid off on Friday. Petra Kvitova captured her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title at the Moorilla Hobart International with a straight set win over Iveta Benesova on Friday night.
While the 25-year-old Benesova's path to the final was fairly smooth - she didn't drop a single set, and the only time she was pushed beyond 6-4 came in her opener, when she upset No.8 seed Tamarine Tanasugarn, 75 75 - the 18-year-old Kvitova was a few points away from falling in the quarterfinals, rallying from a seemingly insurmountable 61 52 hole to beat fellow teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 16 75 63. She won her semifinal handily.
"It was very horrible for me, the first set and most of the second set," declared Kvitova on her match against Pavlyuchenkova. "My legs weren't moving and she was playing well. But I didn't give up - I played every ball as well as I could, and I was able to come back. It was a very important match for me. But it wasn't the end, because of course I had two more matches, and I had to refocus."
The two unseeded players thus set up the Tour's first all-Czech final since Klara Zakopalova beat Lucie Safarova at 's-Hertogenbosch in June 2005. The first set was particularly close, with Benesova fighting back from 5-3 down - saving a set point - to even things up, 5-5. But Kvitova took over from there, reeling off eight of the last nine games to leave her countrywoman shell-shocked, 75 61.
"It was very windy and cold, and when she came back to make it 5-5 in the first set I was very nervous," Kvitova said. "Then I started focusing on every point and I started playing well again. The second set was much quicker. I'm very, very happy. I really like it here, so it's exciting for me to win my first title here."
Kvitova came out of relative obscurity to compile a breakthrough first Top 100 season in 2008. She reached her first two quarterfinals, at Budapest and Zürich, and beat four Top 20 players, including her first Top 10 win in Memphis over Venus Williams. In her first tournament of 2009 at Brisbane last week she fell first round to Ana Ivanovic, but the story was far different this past week in Hobart.
"It has been a good week for me. Now I'm hoping to do well in Melbourne, too. I have a tough first round though - Azarenka is playing really well."
Benesova fell to 1-6 lifetime in finals, a record that also includes a runner-up finish at Hobart in 2006 (to Michaella Krajicek). Both finalists are projected to crack the Top 40 on the new rankings thanks to their performances this past week; while Benesova has already been as high as No.33 in the world, going that high back in 2005, it will be Kvitova's first time in the Top 40.
While unseeded Tour champions aren't too too rare, Hobart was seized by the underdogs, with all eight seeds bowing out before the quarters. Five of them fell first round and three of them - including top seed Flavia Pennetta - were ousted in the second round. Magdalena Rybarikova was Pennetta's conqueror, her win over the world No.13 marking her best ever win, and first over a Top 20 player. Fellow Top 20 stars Patty Schnyder and Anna Chakvetadze were beaten early too, by Tsvetana Pironkova and Carla Suárez Navarro, respectively.
The doubles final saw unseeded duo Pennetta and Gisela Dulko upset top seeds and reigning Australian Open champions the Bondarenko sisters, 62 76(4). It was their second title together, having won Bogotá together in 2006. Dulko now has seven Tour doubles titles to her name while Pennetta has four.
See photos in the Photo Gallery presented by Dubai Duty Free.
