Former Madrid champion Petra Kvitova stutters through
Tuesday 5 May 2015 20:09, UK
Fourth seed Petra Kvitova's stuttering form continued at the Madrid Open as she reached the third round with a 6-4 2-6 6-3 win against CoCo Vandeweghe on Tuesday.
The hard-hitting Czech, who missed the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments because of exhaustion and suffered a first-round exit on indoor clay in Stuttgart last month, was in control when she led by a set and 2-1.
American world No 36 Vandeweghe then took five games in a row to turn the match on its head and stood toe-to-toe with the Wimbledon champion in the decider before faltering.
Kvitova, also taken to three sets by Olga Govortsova in the first round, broke in the eighth game when her opponent netted a forehand and she completed victory with a flourish.
Victoria Azarenka, losing finalist to the Czech here four years ago, beat Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 6-3 6-3 to set up a third-round clash with top seed Serena Williams.
There were no alarms for defending champion Maria Sharapova as she crushed Colombia's Mariana Duque-Mario 6-1 6-2.
The Russian needs to reach the Madrid final to replace Simon Halep on second after the Romanian was sent out in the first round at the weekend.
But five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova is not concerned with the details.
"I face the ranking questions every single week obviously because ranking is a big part of the sport. It's not my main purpose and my main goal.
"If I'm not ready to beat someone towards the later stage of a tournament, then I'm not ready to beat them from the very beginning. My goal is to win championships."
Ana Ivanovic, seeded seventh, beat Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-4 while 14th seed Karolina Pliskova and number 15 Sara Errani both lost.
