By Chris Oddo | Thursday, April 23, 2015

Madison Brengle notched her first career Top 10 win in Stuttgart, taking out a rusty Petra Kvitova in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(2).

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Brengle, playing at a career-high 43 in the rankings, is making her first main draw appearance at Stuttgart.

Kvitova needed time to shake off the rust in her first tournament after a long layoff due to exhaustion. But all credit to Brengle, who was strong with her serve, winning 80 percent of first-serve points and not facing a break point until the tenth game of the second set .

It was then that Kvitova rallied from 40-0 down, saving four match points to draw level in the set at 5-all.

But after forcing the tiebreaker, Kvitova could not stay with Brengle down the stretch.

In the end, Kvitova’s 39 unforced errors kept her from sustaining scoreboard pressure on the American, while Brengle’s stingy error count of 13 allowed her to bid for and complete the colossal upset.

"I think that Madison played a solid match,” Kvitova said afterwards. “She didn't miss much and it was really difficult for me because when I had the opportunity for winners I missed. The confidence wasn't really high then and I didn't feel physically there as well.”

Brengle, 25, is having a career year. She reached the Australian Open round of 16 and the Hobart finals, and has already more than doubled her career win total at the WTA-level. Of her 21 career wins, 15 have come in 2015.

Brengle moves into the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix where she’ll face rising Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia. The 21-year-old knocked off German wild card Carina Witthoeft, 7-6(4), 6-2.

4th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki also began her clay-court campaign with a victory, taking out Lucie Safarova, 7-6(5), 6-1, while 6th-seeded Ekaterina Makarova downed lucky loser Marina Melnikova, 6-2, 6-3.

Sara Errani also moved through, taking down Zarina Diyas, 6-4, 6-1.