Petra Kvitova dented Elena Rybakina’s hopes of winning the Sunshine Double as she clinched the title at the Miami Open on Saturday. The Czech won 7-6(14), 6-2 in a match that was only around 15 minutes shy of two hours.
Going into the final, both players had a split 1-1 head-to-head against each other. Both players started the match strongly with their serve dominating. However, Kvitova got the first breakthrough as she secured a break in the ninth game to try and serve out the set in the following game.
But she never reached set point and it was Rybakina who converted on the first chance she got to break Kvitova’s serve. In the ensuing tie-break, it was Rybakina who had five set points but wasn’t able to convert any and eventually, the 15th seed took the set to get the lead for herself.
In the second set, Rybakina’s game came nowhere close to besting Kvitova’s. The left-hander got an early break for herself and never looked back in the set or in the match, for that matter. Serving to stay in the set in the eighth game, Rybakina dropped her serve for the third time in the match and that was all Kvitova needed to claim victory.
Miami Open: Petra Kvitova’s fairytale fortnight
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