Kvitova storms Muguruza to reach US Open quarterfinal

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Petra Kvitova showed the reigning Wimbledon champ that she can bring the heat at the US Open Sunday. The two time winner at the All-England Club took down Garbine Muguruza 7-6(3), 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium on the grounds of the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center. A match full of unforced errors and double faults from both sides ended with the returning superstar reaching a 10^th career major quarterfinal and a second at the Open.

The Czech holds an important 2-1 series lead against the reigning world number three who remains just one of two who are vying to take the number one spot. They met on the hard courts before with Kvitova giving up 5 games in her straight sets win over Muguruza. So far, the third seed had yet to drop a set taking care of Magdalena Rybarikova on Friday. The same went for Kvitova who hasn’t dropped a set and beat Caroline Garcia in stride. With the world number 14 trying to make her second quarterfinal and Muguruza fighting for her first, both players would pull out all the stops to move on in the tournament.

Muguruza had a good start with Kvitova but as her second time on serve went far better than expected, the Spaniard launched a key break that helped go up 3-1. Unforced errors played a role in the easy points to the world number three as she took the fifth in stride with a big smash on Kvitova. The Czech got her left forehand working as she dominated with it making it a tough time for Muguruza.

She slipped up with some errors that brought the Spaniard back in to play deuce. A centering winner gave her back the advantage point where on a challenge, it was shown to be wide. The two continued on as 17 points elapsed until the Czech locked down the game winner ending 10 minutes of time played in the sixth. With the margin cut in half, Kvitova went on a mission to get her game into offense on both ends to level back. She got it with good pressure on Muguruza to sit a game down.

The 13^th seed added serious pep to her serve as the results paid off with Muguruza swinging air instead. It led to her full comeback on the scoreboard with the obvious sight of taking over the set being very possible. The hard hits on the returns from Kvitova continued to take a heavy toll on Muguruza who couldn’t answer them fully. She got lucky as some of Kvitova’s shots had too much on them landing behind the baseline and giving Muguruza the lead again.

Kvitova didn’t let her keep it even while she committed her fifth double fault. The Czech brushed off the mistakes and reeled her serve back in to win the tenth and play on. The Spaniard tried to find ways of dealing with the hard hits from Kvitova but it never planned to be an easy task. She got to deuce with the Czech but securing the victory was in the hands of her opponent who stepped up 6-5 with a chance to take the set.

Kvitova’s game became somewhat easier for the Spaniard to deal with. Her response was on point to force the two into a key tiebreaker to determine who was coming out ahead. They two evened through the first six points but a break for the 13^th seed gave her a huge lead which set up Kvitova for set point. The 27-year-old finished the short rally with a big smash that concluded one hour and four minutes.  

Kvitova showed how well her control was as the second set got under way. Her hard first serve was taking it to Muguruza giving her the leverage to dictate. It was soon a fourth consecutive game win for the 27-year-old as she coasted through third service with all the momentum closing very fast to reaching the round of eight.

Muguruza needed her service win in the sixth as it resulted in sitting two games down and bringing Kvitova’s dominance to a stop. When the world number 14 got the in hand, she laid down the hits that beat Muguruza and pressured her to stay alive in the eighth. The Czech put the pressure on the third seed edging ahead in the score that briefly set up match point. An unforced error brought the 23-year-old into deuce where she gained the AD and won it.

The problem came when Kvitova got the ball to serve it out making Muguruza run right away. Just when it looked as if she had the game to get it done, errors and a big double fault brought Muguruza back gain another chance at a break. The Czech got lucky with a long ball from the world number three sending the two to deuce. It only took two breaks before Kvitova got the match done in 1 hour and 46 minutes.

“it was challenge to come play on the big stage and very challenging to play here again and a really great night to play,” Kvitova said to ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi. She’ll get Monday off to prepare for the next level of the tournament in which she will face American Venus Williams.