Czech mate as Petra Kvitova beats Lucie Safarova to win battle of lefties

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  • On top: Petrva Kvitova.

    Petra Kvitova gave a muted celebration upon beating her fellow Czech and good friend Lucie Safarova 7-5, 7-5 in the WTA Finals on Wednesday that it was barely noticeable she had actually won.

    She hopped over to the net, gave Safarova a hug and they exchanged quick words inaudible to the crowd and viewers on TV.

    “I wished her good health. I think that’s the most important for everyone,” Kvitova later revealed of that brief conversation at the net.

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    It’s understandable why those were Kvitova’s chosen words.

    The two-time Wimbledon champion has been battling glandular fever for months and while she says her doctors have advised her she could compete, she has been huffing and puffing through her matches and is clearly struggling physically. Safarova has also had an unfortunate brush with illness.

    She had a mysterious bacterial infection last month which hospitalised her and has been trying to regain her fitness ever since.  

    But even though they sound like the walking wounded, yesterday’s White Group match was a high standard affair.

    At first glance, the two players look eerily similar. They’re both Czech, lefties, power-hitters, tall, blondes, and they were even wearing identical white and purple Nike kits.

    Their matches are always close, which is usually the case when two friends who respect each other face off, but it is Kvitova who has had the upper hand in every single one of them, and yesterday, she took her record against Safarova to a sweeping 8-0 head-to-head.

    Kvitova, a WTA Finals champion in 2011 and competing in the event for a fifth straight year, met a 17-year-old Safarova when she was just 14 in Prostejov, where they both practiced.

    The older Czech doesn’t remember much about that first encounter with Kvitova but recalls that “she was always good fighter.”

    That was evident on court in Singapore on Wednesday.

    Both players entered the match carrying opening losses in their White Group action. They remained neck and neck throughout most of the first set with neither one flinching on serve.

    The very first break point of the match came in game 11 but Kvitova saved it with a thumping cross court backhand winner. She held and broke in the next game, taking the set with a big forehand. The 25-year-old dropped only three points on her first serve in that set.

    Safarova stepped back on court in the second set with a vengeance, racing to a 3-0 lead with two breaks of serve. But Kvitova, who was seen sipping some coke in the changeovers to settle her stomach (something she says is related to her glandular fever), struck back, winning four games on the trot to make it 4-3. Safarova saved two break points to hang on in the eighth game of the set but two forehand misses in game 12 proved costly as Kvitova sealed her victory with a deep return that forced the error from her friend.

    “It’s probably I’m more patient or… it’s difficult to say,” Kvitova said when asked why she tends to get the better of Safarova.

    Kvitova admits facing a good friend on court is never a pleasant feeling.

    “I really prefer to have her by my side not on the other side,” she told Andrew Krasny on court.

    She later added: “Before the match we have the same locker room and we were just chatting normally, not like we were going to play each other soon. She’s a good person and it’s just, you know, kind of sad that we have to play each other in the group already.”

    She admits she feels tired but was determined to keep her chances alive in the competition.

    “I knew this match was like a final. If I lost I’m probably going home soon. So I was really trying to play what I can,” said Kvitova. 

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