Petra Kvitova is the one taking Caroline Wozniacki’s throne at the $637,000 New Haven Open at Yale. In the final against Maria Kirilenko (against whom Wozniacki retired in the previous round), after saving set points in both sets, Kvitova won the title that used to be Wozniacki’s in the past four years.
Six service breaks in the first set led it to a marathon tiebreak in which Kvitova fended off her first set point and after working her way to victory in the first set, the Czech fell 2-5 in the second set and Kirileko again earned a set point. However, Kvitova had no room for discouragement and won all the remaining games to win the match 7-6(9) 7-5.
After a first-round bye, the second-seeded Kvitova defeated Nicole Gibbs, then eighth seed Lucie Safarova, fourth-seed Sara Errani in the semifinals, and finally the seventh-seeded Maria Kirilenko.
Just 12 days ago Kvitova won the $2,168,400 Rogers Cup, then reached the semifinals of the 2,168,400 Western & Southern Open, thus becoming the US Open Series winner, and then went on to win New Haven – notice, all the three are Premier-level tournaments. At the US Open Kvitova is seeded fifth and Polona Hercog is her first opponent. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)
