Petra Kvitova
Petra Kvitova

WTA Tour: Petra Kvitova defeats Caroline Wozniacki in China Open


Petra Kvitova dazzled under the lights as she beat Caroline Wozniacki to reach the China Open quarter-finals.

In the headline evening match, the former Wimbledon champion fended off world number six Wozniacki and took a hard-earned 6-1 6-4 victory.

She is now Sky Bet's 11/4 favourite to win the tournament, with Simona Halep 3/1, Elina Svitolina 4/1 and Jelena Ostapenko 9/2.

Czech Kvitova, ranked 18th in the world, faced an early break point but then dominated the opening set, and she stayed composed in the second.

The first nine games of the second set went with serve, but Wozniacki faltered when serving for the first time to stay in the match. Kvitova clinched victory at the first opportunity on the floodlit main show court when her opponent floated the ball an inch over the baseline.

Kvitova goes on to face her compatriot Barbora Strycova (16/1), who saw off Australian Daria Gavrilova 6-0 6-4.

World number four Karolina Pliskova tumbled out, with the Czech beaten 6-1 7-5 by Romanian Sorana Cirstea (20/1).

But third-ranked Elina Svitolina remains in the title hunt, the Ukrainian a 6-2 7-5 winner against Russian Elena Vesnina.

Next for Svitolina is an awkward-looking quarter-final against in-form French player Caroline Garcia (10/1), who won the title in Wuhan last week and is at her highest career ranking of 15th as a result. 

Garcia was untroubled by her French compatriot Alize Cornet in the third round, coming through 6-2 6-1.

Latvia's French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko advanced when Chinese opponent Shuai Peng retired due to a knee injury and will face Cirstea in the last eight on Friday.

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