By Chris Oddo | Tuesday January 22, 2019
Petra Kvitova reached her first Grand Slam semifinal since 2014 and ended the superb run of Australia’s hometown favorite Ashleigh Barty, 6-1, 6-4 on Tuesday night in Melbourne.
The Czech needed just 68 minutes to power past the Aussie, and notched her tenth consecutive win behind 25 winners and a constant stream of pressure that left Barty on the back foot from the start.
“I started better than the final in Sydney,” the Czech told Jim Courier on court after the match. “I started very well, I served well, I took the break. She didn’t give me anything for free and I really had to fight until the end.”
Kvitova needed two hours and 19 minutes to claim a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(3) over Barty a few weeks ago in the Sydney final, but she was ruthless on Tuesday, and sent a fusillade of winners past Barty to keep her at bay.
“Petra is absolutely capable of taking a match away from someone,” Barty said. “I knew that going in. At times it's very much out of my control, what she does from her end of the court. In the beginning, she served particularly well. Even when I was hitting my spots on first serves, she was returning within a meter or two of the baseline, putting me on the back foot instantly.
“Yeah, she was clean as a whistle tonight. I have to give all credit to her.”
Kvitova’s journey back to this level of the Grand Slam stage has been an arduous one. She nearly had her career taken from her when she suffered severe lacerations to her left hand during a home invasion late in 2016, but triumphantly returned to the sport in 2017. In 2018 she was the most dominant player in the sport away from the majors, winning five titles, but she slipped at the Grand Slam stage, unable to parlay her form into a deep run.
After winning her 26th title in Sydney last week Kvitova has not skipped a beat in Melbourne.
The one-woman wrecking crew has dropped 22 games in five matches.
Afterwards she was emotional on court and let the tears flow after the crowd gave her a rousing standing ovation to honor all that she has been through to be where she is.
After gathering herself, she took the mic and said: "No, really. I didn't really imagine to be back on this great stadium and play with the best. It's great."
It has been a while, but the two-time champion has been here before. Kvitova was just two wins from the No.1 ranking in 2012, but dropped a hard-fought semifinal in Melbourne to Maria Sharapova. The Czech has been to the semifinals or better at four majors in her career.
“I'm calling it as my second career,” Kvitova told reporters after the match. “So it's the first semifinal of the second career. But, yeah, it's took me while, for sure. I never really played so well on the Grand Slams, so I'm happy this time it's different. I'm really enjoying it.”
The Czech moves on to face American Danielle Collins next. Collins became the sixth unseeded player to reach the semifinals in Melbourne since 2012 with a three-set win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova—none of those players have gone on to reach the final.
Kvitova defeated Collins in Brisbane two weeks ago in a hard-fought three-setter—it was their only previous career meeting.