MONTREAL: Petra Kvitova outlasted China’s Li Na 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 to take the Rogers Cup title Monday.
The 22-year-old Czech earned her first tournament win of the year after taking six titles last year, including Wimbledon.
It was the first of Kvitova’s eight career victories to be won in North America.
“I hope it will continue,” said Kvitova, who said this week she has had trouble winning in North America because the high humidity affects her asthma. “North America is always tough for me and I’m so glad how I played here this week.”
The match featured two Grand Slam champions from 2011, as Li took the French Open. Li is 0-3 in tournament finals this year.
“It was a tough match, this was a tennis war,” Li said. “Both players played good.
“She’s very tough. She plays the ball so deep. I felt I was always on defense. The last two matches I felt I could be aggressive on the court, but this one I felt I was 70 percent of the time on defense.”
Kvitova, seeded fifth, struggled at the start, hitting several balls long. She fell behind 3-1 before she found the range with her forehand and charged back to take the lead.
Even then, she needed to save three break points to take a 6-5 lead, then won the set on her fifth break point against the 10th-seeded Li.
Li took the first 16 points of the second set to grab a 4-0 lead before Kvitova finally held serve.
But Kvitova got her game back for the third, hammering shots deep in the hard court that Li could not return. Li didn’t help herself by hitting two easy smashes into the net.
Li’s serve was broken at 3-2 when she doubled faulted, then had a return fly wide off the rim of her racket.
“Between the second and third sets when I was in the locker room changing my clothes, I knew I had to attack the balls and play much faster than in the second set, and have a better first serve percentage,” said Kvitova, who punctuated the win with an ace on match point.
Davydenko shows door
to Dolgopolov
In Cincinnati, old pro Nikolay Davydenko, a former top five threat, schooled Ukrainian young gun Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-1, 6-1 on Monday to get off to a rollicking start at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.
The 31-year-old Russian left Dolgopolov, eight years his junior, wondering what happened to the game which produced a title in Washington eight days ago on pre-US Open hardcourts.
Since beating German Tommy Haas for the final in the American capital, Dolgopolov has lost two matches, winning just four games in the process.
Davydenko, 2008 Cincinnati semi-finalist, said he wished he could roll back the years: “I am playing well but there is no way that I will get younger, it’s to much to ask,” said the Russian as he played for the first time since the London Olympics. Davydenko, an eight-year veteran with an 11-8 mark at the tournament, also won the pair’s only other match in the Barcelona first round in April, 2011. Dolgopolov exits without having ever won a match in three Cincinnati attempts.
In another men’s match before light rain arrived as forecast, Italian Andreas Seppi beat Dutchman Robin Haase 6-4, 6-4.
In the women’s draw, a pair of unseeded Germans advanced into the second round on the day in which world number 13 Ana Ivanovic was forced to withdraw after a foot injury suffered last week in Montreal.
The Serbian former number one will hopefully be fit after five days of rest and can begin final preparations for the US Open starting in a fortnight. Mona Barthel hammered Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-0, 6-4 while number 25 Julia Goerges defeated Israeli Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-3. Swede Johanna Larsson beat Australian Casey Dellacqua in a battle of qualifiers 6-1, 6-3.
Olympic double gold medallist Serena Williams, seeded second behind Agnieszka Radwanska this week, shared the joy of her singles and doubles honors at London.
“It was really awesome to win both medals at the Olympics,” said the 30-year-old. “I really wanted to win doubles even though everyone one reminded me that I had not won singles (yet).
“I just want to keep playing well and doing the best that I can. More Slams obviously is what I want to go for. I definitely have goals that I want to try to reach,” said the former number one and 14-time Grand Slam champion.