Petra Kvitova suffered a shock 1-6 6-1 6-3 loss to Kristyna Pliskova in the second round of the Volvo Car Open in Charleston.
The loss ended a run of 24 consecutive wins for the No.2 seed over her fellow Czechs and it is the first time either Pliskova sister has beaten Kvitova on the WTA tour.
“I’m really happy,” said Pliskova in her on-court interview. “It’s my second top ten win this year and it’s special against Petra. She’s played so well against Czech players so I’m happy I broke her streak.”
It was looking like the younger Czech would suffer a heavy defeat when she lost the first set 6-1, but she turned the match around completely in sets two and three to earn a deserved victory.
“My serve was horrible in the first set,” said Pliskova. “I feel like it was flying everywhere, so I just focused on my serve. And then the (rest of my) game was a bit better as well.”
The World No.78 certainly served significantly better in the second set. She won 14 of 22 points on her serve compared to 13 of 34 points in the opener.
Pliskova’s improvements on her serve enabled her to swing freely in her return games and she broke Kvitova three times in the second and twice in the decider.
Konta crashes out
Kvitova was not the only high-profile casualty on the clay of South Carolina as Johanna Konta’s poor start to 2018 continued.
The Briton never really got going in her match against Fanny Stollar and lost 6-3 6-4 to the Hungarian qualifier.
It was Konta’s eighth loss in 19 matches so far this season and her second defeat to a player ranked outside the World’s Top 100.
When the Briton is playing well, she invariably serves well, and in the first set her serving was very poor. She only made 48% of her first serves and won just 25% of points on her second serve.
Inevitably, such poor serving gave Stollar numerous opportunities to break Konta, and she did exactly that three times in the opening set.
The 2017 Wimbledon semi-finalist raised her level in the second set and it was a much closer affair. However, despite performing better, Konta failed to create a single break point chance in the set.
By contrast, Stollar earned three break points in the set and eventually took the one she needed in game nine before holding serve to seal a famous win.
It was the Hungarian’s second big scalp in Charleston after she beat Vesnina in the second round in 2017. “It looks like this is now my favourite tournament,” she said in her on-court interview.
“She’s really tough to play against,” Stollar said. “I lost to her once already so I was coming out expecting nothing of myself. I was just going to play my game and I really focused on every point.”
The Hungarian continued, “In both sets I really just tried to break her and hold my serve. (I wanted to) keep her behind the baseline and stay aggressive.”
Osaka, Goerges, Barty and Vesnina progress
Elsewhere in Charleston, Indian Wells champion Naomi Osaka saw off a strong challenge from Laura Siegemund as she beat the German 6-3 7-6(8).
The Japanese is likely to face a tough task in the last 16 against another German: Julia Goerges. The fifth seed came from a set down to edge out young American Kristie Ahn 2-6 6-4 7-6(1).
Ashleigh Barty backed up her convincing first-round win with a 4-6 6-3 6-2 triumph over Tatjana Maria. The Australian will now play Anastasia Sevastova, who also needed three sets to overcome Caroline Dolehide 7-5 6-7(5) 6-1.
2016 finalist Elena Vesnina stormed to a 6-4 6-1 victory over Taylor Townsend, Camila Giorgi upset 11th seed Daria Gavrilova 6-2 2-6 6-3 and Kiki Bertens beat Aleksandra Krunic 6-4 6-2.
Sara Errani continued her progress with a 3-6 7-6(5) 6-2 win over Mihaela Buzarnescu, Alize Cornet took down Polona Hercog 6-2 6-3, Irina-Camelia Begu beat Claire Liu 6-4 6-2 and Bernarda Pera overcame Dayana Yastremska 7-6(4) 1-6 6-4.
