Saturday, May 9, 2015

Kvitova wins second Madrid title



Petra Kvitova may have struggled a bit here and there this week, but she also had "the look"--the one she gets when she's mostly relaxed on court and can put herself into "Scary Petra" mode at will. It was almost a given that her opponent in today's final, Svetlana Kuznetsova, would be down to her very last reserves. The 2009 French Open champion played two epic matches against very tough opponents (Stosur and Safarova) and she played them consecutively, in the quarterfinals and semifinals. It was a wonder, in fact, that Kuznetsova was able to go three hours against Safarova after what Stosur had put her through.

Today, Kuznetsova felt ill during the match, and that was certainly no surprise. She also had to deal with a very in-form Kvitova, who hit 33 winners in 66 minutes, beating Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-2. This, of course, after she defeated defending champion Serena Williams in the semifinals.

The Madrid title, Kvitova's second, gives her a total of 16 singles titles, and she's now 16-5 in tour finals.

Most people don't believe that Kvitova is, or ever was, a contender to win the French Open, so great is her love of grass and indoor courts. I've always thought that she was a contender for all of the majors, though the French would be more difficult for her, and her asthma gives her problems in Flushing Meadows. Mostly, I think, it's about the head--everything else is nicely in place.

Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova won the doubles title, defeating 3rd seeds Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-7, 10-5 in the final. Dellacqua and Shvedova defeated Stuttgart champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova in the semifinals; Muguruza and Suarez Navarro defeated Kiki Mladenovic and Karolina Pliskova.
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