MELBOURNE, Australia - Petra Kvitova survived some erratic play and an inspired opponent to reach her first Australian Open semifinal, beating Sara Errani in a hard-fought two set quarterfinal match Wednesday, 64 64.
Errani was treading new ground: she had never been beyond the third round of a Grand Slam before this, and she had never defeated a Top 10 player either - in fact she was a daunting 0-24 against the elite. But from the beginning she gave Kvitova a lot of resistance, her deep, topspin groundstrokes preventing the Czech from asserting her dominance - in fact it seemed to throw her off.
Kvitova served for the first set at 5-2, but Errani took the next two games before Kvitova served it out at 5-4. The numbers weren't Kvitova's best, however - she had a -6 differential in the first set, 16 winners to a hefty 22 unforced errors.
"In the beginning I was a little nervous because I knew everyone was expecting it would be easy. It was probably in my head," Kvitova said. "Sara was playing very well, too - she had to be, because she won all the matches before."
The 48th-ranked Errani exploited Kvitova's erratic play early in the second set, storming out to a 4-1 lead - seemingly on the verge of pushing the match to a third set as the took a 30-0 lead in the next game. But the World No.2 rose to the occasion, reeling off five games in a row. She won 14 of the last 17 points.
"I just tried to be focused on every point, nothing around except the shot I'm playing. But not just going for winners from the second shot," Kvitova said. "I had to wait for the right time to go for winners. That was the key today.
"I didn't play stupid. I tried to play like I really have to play."
Kvitova is now in her first Australian Open semifinal and third overall Grand Slam semifinal, having gone that far at Wimbledon the last two years (falling to Serena Williams in the 2010 semis then going all the way to the title in 2011).
Errani is projected to move into the low 30s on the new rankings.
