Fifth day of action at this year’s Miami Open saw third round play in the top half of the women’s draw commence.
Ninth seed and two-time quarterfinalist Petra Kvitova took on former champion Johanna Konta, in what was one of five all-seeded match-ups, closing out the day’s action on Grandstand.
Although marred by a rain delay pre-match, Kvitova showed she had no business sticking around long as she sailed to 6-1, 6-2 win, maintaining her spotless record over the Brit on hard courts.
Kvitova hurries past Konta to opening-set breadstick
Starting off the match with a hold of serve to 30, Kvitova placed her foot on the gas as she took the next eight points in succession to go up 3-0.
Konta did get on the scoreboard in the following game but it would turn out to be the sole game the Brit gets in the bag for the set.
With two more service holds and another break of serve, Kvitova closed out the opener in 26 minutes, with a thundering serve which forced an error on return from her opponent.
Kvitova eliminates former champion, keeps spotless record against latter on hard courts
There was no stopping Kvitova’s momentum as the second set began, the Czech putting away a forehand return winner to set up break point which she converted courtesy of a Konta double fault.
Five service holds down the road, now up 4-2, Kvitova found herself two games away from the win and broke the British player once more after the latter netted a backhand on break point.
Serving for the win, Kvitova raced off to three match points but would convert her second of those, closing it out after a Konta backhand went wide.
The Czech’s scintillating performance, which was over in 58 minutes, also saw her exact revenge for her Wimbledon defeat in this same stage back in 2019.
Despite Konta possessing the far better first serve percentage between the duo for the match (65% to 51%), Kvitova was the better player in playing the points, racking a 78% success rate on serve, winning 86% and 70% of points behind her first and second deliveries, respectively.
The former world number two Kvitova also fired five aces while keeping her double fault count sparkling clean zero while Konta was almost as good with four aces and a double fault of her own.
Firing 19 winners to 12 unforced errors throughout the contest, Kvitova did not face a single break point also and nearly doubled her opponents in the total points won department (51 to 27).
Up next
In what will be the one and only all-top 10 encounter in the last 16 stage, Kvitova takes on a familiar opposition in the number five seed Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine.
Having lost their previous clash, at the WTA Finals in 2018, Kvitova will be on revenge duty once more as the Czech looks to re-assert her dominant head-to-head against the 26-year-old, which stands at 7-2 to date.