Petra Kvitova battles back to claim Nature Valley Classic title in Birmingham
Sunday 24 June 2018 18:34, UK
Petra Kvitova hit back from a set down to beat Magdalena Rybarikova and retain her Nature Valley Classic title in Birmingham.
The double Wimbledon champion had reached the final without dropping a set but was made to work by Slovakian Rybarikova, who won the Birmingham title in 2017.
But, after dropping a tight opening set, Kvitova turned on the style to record a 4-6 6-1 6-2 victory in just over two hours.
Like Kvitova, Rybarikova has a fine grass-court pedigree having reached last year's Wimbledon semi-finals, and it showed in the opener as she seized the advantage.
Rybarikova twice broke the Kvitova serve in the opening set and looked a strong candidate to claim the fourth WTA Tour title of her career.
But Kvitova proved a different proposition for the remainder of the match, breaking twice in the second set, while only having to save a single break point against her serve.
And despite being broken in the decider, Kvitova responded by breaking Rybarikova three more times to wrap up what ultimately proved to be a convincing win.
Meanwhile, Tatjana Maria claimed her first WTA Tour title by winning the Mallorca Open.
The German won 6-4 7-5 against third-seed Anastasija Sevastova to give herself the perfect boost going into Wimbledon.
She looked up against it in the second set, trailing 0-4, but won seven of the next eight games to claim a straight-sets win.
Our next tennis action comes from the German Open in Hamburg. Watch the action live on Sky Sports Arena from Monday, July 23 from 10am.
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