Quote:
Originally Posted by Petronius
Didn't see it, but acc. to reports Martic played awesome.
EDIT: according to Martic herself  |
Come on now. Somebody's got to tell the truth. I stayed up for this debacle, you didn't.
Though there appears to be many drive by haters, critics and knuckleheads lurching in this thread, waiting to feast off Kvitova's carcass, you gotta be honest here. Petra K was unprepared-as she has a tendency to, when she hasn't played in a while and walks into a tournament with a bye. I've seen this act before, and it was dreadful.
This certainly didn't appear to be a well played match in the least, by either player. Though I didn't see it. I experienced it on Live Score, and neither player served or returned well most of the match-right out the gate. I'm sure it was windy, etc., but the conditions affect both players. No excuses. Other top players pulled out their touch matches and rusty play.
Petra Martic served 50% in the first set. And doesn't possess a great second serve or ROS. Both players had about 1 ace and 5DF's by early in the second set. Both had been broken multiple time, and had numerous BP opportunities-for and against them. And every time Petra K broke back, and had a chance to take control and the momentum, she lost it again. Both players just appeared to go back and forth. It wasn't pretty. Neither player was sharp (at least from the scoreboard).
I love Petra Martic. She's very talented, while a beauty to watch when she's on. And I knew before hand Kvitova could lose if she wasn't up to par. However, there's a reason why Martic's ranked where she is (errors, inconsistency, choking, holes in her game, injuries, etc.). And she displayed those things in this match (even though she had a match under her belt, from playing in the first rd), and Petra Kvitova couldn't take advantage of that.
Even when Petra M held serve to win the match, you wouldn't have been surprised if she had got broken again. It was just that type of match. So I didn't experience neither player playing great, till maybe Martic stabilized it towards the end, by holding her serve.
Nonetheless, Kudos to Martic for pulling it out. She seemed to be the bigger mental Giant here. Probably her biggest WTA scalp so far.
Now we'll see what happens in Beijing for Kvitova? I'm sure Petra K, will have something to prove (though the elite won't be there, and she lost XX semi-final pts here in Tokyo). But what a fail start to the Asian and Indoor Swing.
She needs to get it together. Just dreadful.
Tokyo R2: Martic d. Kvitova 6-4 6-4
What happened to her serve 
