Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic won her 11th career WTA title after winning the Toray Pan Pacific Open 2013 in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday after she defeated Angelique Kerber of Germany in a battle of lefty players. It was a closely-contested match with momentum swings along the way. Kvitova lost the second set at love but went ahead and stormed to a 4-0 lead in the third. She went on to win it all at 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 scoreline.
“In the first set I was attacking every ball and hitting so many winners but in the beginning of the second set I made some easy mistakes and felt slower in my legs, and that’s what Angie was waiting for,” Kvitova said. “I knew it wasn’t over until the last point, though. After the second set I knew what I had to do – play the same way as the first set, stay aggressive and cut the mistakes down again.
“I’m very happy I could win this final today. For me the whole tournament was great – I felt good all week on the court. I really enjoyed my week here and it’s even better to come away with the title.”
Kvitova came from a tough semifinal encounter the day before after she eliminated resurgent Venus Williams via a third set tiebreaker.
“Everyone has tight matches during a tournament – yesterday we played two and a half hours – but I still felt good today,” she said. “I don’t think the second set was because of yesterday’s match.”
The victory means that Kvitova will make a return to the world’s top ten at number seven once the rankings are released on Monday.
Both finalists will be flying to Beijing to participate at the Premier Mandatory China Open which begins on Monday.
“Petra was playing very well in the first set – in the second set I started to play my game, and I tried to do the same thing in the third set, but she started playing tougher again and moved better,” Kerber said. “I was trying to give my best but she was better at the end, so all credit to her.”
