By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday March 14, 2023
One one of the wildest matches of her career, Petra Kvitova saved four match points to defeat Jessica Pegula.
Photo Source: Getty
In 2022, Petra Kvitova came back to win from match point down three times, including an epic victory over Garbine Muguruza at last year’s US Open. This year, the 33-year-old Czech is up to her old tricks.
Kvitova saved four match points to win a dramatic seesaw battle with No.3-seeded Jessica Pegula on Tuesday at the BNP Paribas Open, the Czech moving into the quarterfinals for the third time and setting a clash with Maria Sakkari.
“I play for these emotions,” said a triumphant Kvitova after locking down her victory. “Up and down all the match, it was a disaster at some point and I was just making winners. Oh my god, I don’t know how many match points I was saving.”
Kvitova, who saved a match point with Pegula serving at 5-3, 40-30 in the final set, and another three in a back-and-forth final-set tiebreak that had the Stadium 1 crowd on the edge of their seats, told the crowd that it was one of the best victories of her career.
“Up and down, four match points saved. Definitely it’s one of the best matches I’ve played. Even tennis-wise I think it was a great match,” she said.
Pegula played some incredible tennis, despite the fact that she couldn’t get over the finish line. The third-seeded American was forced to run the baseline when Kvitova took control of the rallies, and she was indefatigable, finding ways to extend points and goad Kvitova into errors. She did everything but win.
Kvitova showed resilience, shaking off three match point misses before finishing off the hard-fought victory.
She’ll be back at it tomorrow against 7th-seeded Maria Sakkari. But first, some well-deserved rest.
“When the match like this, it’s very exhausting,” she said. “The moment I finish actually I'm going for stretch. I'm already dead.”